GRØN DYST 2018 Book of abstracts by DTUdk

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Student conference on sustainability, the environment and climate technology.

10.00: Welcome by Kirsten Brosbøl, member of Danish Parliament and president of the Danish Parliament’s SDG network

13.35: Judging the projects

10.45: Judging the projects

12.35: Lunch

15.20: Deliberation of the projects

15.45: Entertainment by stand-up comedian Lasse Rimmer

16.15: Flemming Besenbacher, president of the Carlsberg Foundation

17.30: BBQ and concert in Grønnegården with Danish jazzband Mads Kjølby Trio with singer Sidsel Storm

PROGRAMME

9.30 – 10.00: Registration

Sustainable Development Goals Engineers play an essential role in ensuring sustainable development. Engineers can and must continue contributing towards developing technological solutions and address global challenges. United Nation has on September 25th 2015 adopted 17 goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part

of a new global and sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. The 17 Sustainable Development Goals are now incorporated in the framework of Green Challenge, because Green Challenge needs to address global Challenges. Read about each of the 17 SDGs on United Nations website: www.un.org

Abstracts

Bachelor course

Bachelor course Project no. 101

A Turning Situation C. B. Haahr, J. Hallengreen and M. Paul DTU BEng, Process and Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION TO PARKINSON’S DISEASE Parkinson's disease (= PD) is the 2. largest neurodegenerative disease and appears in various motor symptoms. It’s estimated that around 12 million people worldwide have PD with diagnoses ascending. The biggest problem with PD is the reduction in mobility. Up to 98% of all people with PD experience slowness of movement and when turning PD patients occasionally experience freezing of gait, which is one of the most disabling symptoms.

THE PROBLEM AT HAND Participating in clinical trials regarding PD involves clinical tests every other week at a clinical facility. There are three problems related to the situation: The patient is measured in a non-daily living environment which increases the placebo effect; it’s subject to observers bias from a clinical presence and currently, there is no clinically validated method for data on motor symptoms. Data is collected with the UPDRS (the unified quantifying parkinson's disease rating scale) assessment which is the best practice for clinical trials - but it is subjective and sparse. Failure rates for both Phase II and Phase III clinical trials have risen since 2001, primarily because of poor showing against placebos. The challenge we are trying to solve is to validate the UPDRS’s test results, by reliably quantifying slowness of movement in a daily living environment with zero burden to the patient. Our vision is to design a product that measures the efficacy of medicine to reduce medication errors and optimize dosage and thereby increase the life quality of PD patients.

METHOD We have developed a mat that collects discrete and objective data. By restricting the measurements to certain actions related to clinical tests, we ensure high data quality, which guides pharmaceutical companies to a more accurate drug selection process. We have embedded the technology in every day actions, which ensures zero burden for the patient. To measure freezing when turning, we place the mat somewhere the patient naturally has to turn every day; like in front of the toilet, -armchair or by the bed. We can thereby identify the turning pattern and the severity of the patient’s symptoms. This requires no active interaction with the mat and the placement will ensure frequent data points. The technology in the mat consists of: Capacitive touch sensors, a microprocessor, battery and a SSD-card.

IMPACT We are focusing on the third of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly by promoting mental health and well-being for PD patients and increasing the universal access to safe and effective vital medicine by creating more efficient data acquirement methods for pharmaceutical company to use in clinical trials.

Bachelor course Project no. 102

Adding Value to Waste Materials in the Carrot Production Line J. A. B. Rezende1, I. R. Nielsen2, S. Storgaard2, R. G. Kajbæk3, L. T. Hansen4 and M. N. Larsen4 1 DTU Arctic Technology, Technical University of Denmark DTU Food Safety and Quality, Technical University of Denmark 3 DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark 4 DTU Manufacturing and Management, Technical University of Denmark 2

INTRODUCTION When visiting Greens Engro who we collaborated with during Innovation Pilot we noticed a large amount of waste was being created in the carrot production line. Firstly, the carrots were peeled and had the ends cut off and subsequently many of them were pressed into juice which left large amounts of pulp. The total daily accumulated carrot waste is approximately 1000 kg, which at best ends up as animal feed and at worst as garbage. Furthermore, the company has unused excess heat which they cannot sell and until now had no idea of how to use. In our project we focused on adding value to the waste by creating new products and utilizing the excess heat to increase sustainability in the carrot production line.

METHODS To investigate which products might have the greatest consumer value we analyzed the current trends for sustainable products. This research was used to design a questionnaire, in which we investigated the consumers’ views on products made from waste materials and which of the possible products the respondents would be willing to try and/or buy. After this research we took the best ideas to the food laboratory at DTU and created several prototypes to test if the products could be made efficiently and to sensory evaluate them.

SOLUTION We found that carrot flour made from pulp or peels and carrot chips made from the peels are the two most sustainable and easiest implementable products in the company’s current production line. The technical implementation is based on the idea of transferring excess heat from the cooling system to a dehydrator oven. This can be obtained by providing the cooling system with a heat exchanger, connected to a pipe system which provides heat to a fan blowing warm air into the oven. To make all this possible it will be necessary to invest half a million DKK to ensure proper production machinery and equipment. According to our calculations, this investment will be paid back within 3 years.

Figure 1: A prototype of our carrot flour and carrot chips, made in the food laboratory at DTU

Bachelor course Project no. 103

Agricultural Real-Timing Data Ledger with Blockchain C. F. J. Wong, M. P. Lai, and W. H. Yung HKUST Division of Environmental and Sustainability, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

PROBLEM Small farmers far away from the urban cities are often marginalized as they have little access to the market, leading to unfair trades between the middle men and the farmers. But their distance from the cities enable the soil to be less contaminate. Besides, population bloom and urbanization cause potential food insecurity in many fast-growing economy as the decline in agricultural sector cannot catch up with the increase in demand. Not only insecurity in terms of quantity, nations are also facing challenges in food quality and safety as unsustainable farming practices, like large scale monoculture of cash crops and mineral fertilizers overuse, degrade land and water resources while producing pesticide-covered crops harmful to our health. To secure food safety, many organic certification bodies emerged but very few are completely understandable and transparent to the public who are increasingly curious about their food sources. As data can only be leveraged by trusted authorities, the credibility of organic food certification in some countries is low.

SOLUTION First: Combined sensors with simple robotics and market-available sensors An innovative real-time field sensor that checks nutrients, weather and soil toxicity to be incorporated with a data-reporting device which uploads real-time data onto a digital ledger (The Blockchain). It informs both the farmers and the consumers (hotel/ high-end restaurant) of different parameters of the soil.

Second: Blockchain to store agricultural data/ parameters The data will be captured by a distributed ledger (Blockchain) to avoid frauds. Data on this ledger is protected thus it is not alterable by any third party to improve credibility of the system.

Third: Real-time reporting of data relating to organic agriculture and supply chain status to end users The disintermediation of food supply chain creates direct deals between chain restaurants/ hotels, which has highest supply chain risks as they supply high-quality food/beverage to their customers, with the farmers. We provide real-time verification of food quality from the moment the seed is sowed. The crops can be sold at the same price/cheaper to these chains since they are grown in distant villages while the farmers could earn more by minimizing the need of a middleman.

FUTURE APPLICATION The East Asia and the Indochina regions were the most intensive user of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, it is also a region with socio-economic disparity among farmers. In China, for example, there are approximately 43 million farmers who live under the poverty line while there is an increasing demand for organic food from consumers. The system delivers monetary and sustainable value to farmers and creates credibility and trust for consumers.

Bachelor course Project no. 104

An Understanding of Energy Consumption Enabling the Green Energy Solution of Tomorrow C. A. Fuglsang-Damgaard, S. S. Kruse, M. Grønning, and E. Zinck DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION In order to reduce pollution and CO2 emissions in our cities we need to close coal, gas and oil power plants and rely more on renewable energy, such as solar and wind. However, no renewable energy source is controllable. This raises the question of how renewable energy can replace old polluting sources that can deliver electricity on demand. If the power consumption in the cities fluctuates a lot, it is very hard to secure an energy delivery by uncontrollable energy. Unfortunately, this is the case in most cities due to the fact that people tend to do the same things at the same time. When everybody cooks dinner at the same time, energy consumption increases. One solution to this problem is to introduce SmartGrid which allows for more flexible consumption of electricity such that consumption is increased when more renewable energy is produced. The aim of our project is to understand what factors drive the large fluctuations. This is necessary to know in order to make energy consumption more even by for instance using SmartGrid.

OUR PROJECT

In our project we analyze the hourly consumption of energy for different areas in Malmö and the supply of energy to Skåne and Malmö. This is done by analyzing so-called ‘peaks’, which are time periods where the supply of energy to Skåne is above a defined upper limit.

Our findings show that peaks have a clear yearly variation, since the peaks in general occur during the colder and darker months of the year where the need for heating and lighting is higher. The peaks also show a large daily variation: A large number of peaks occur 9-12 during the morning and 18-19 in the late afternoon, which indicates that part of the problem can be solved by moving the energy consumption just a few hours away or to during the night where virtually no peaks occur. The data also shows that some areas of Malmö consume more relative to other areas of Malmö when peaks occur. These areas are where solutions like e.g. SmartGrid should be implemented first to make the largest impact on the overall energy consumption Our project provides the groundwork identifying the problems of today’s energy consumption. On top of our research work the solutions for tomorrow’s energy system using renewable energy can be built.

Bachelor course Project no. 105

Beeducate A. Bagger, S. Holm, B. Jasari, E. Kindt, L. Bostrup and M. Rasmussen DTU BEng, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION We are Beeducate and we have developed an educational kit, with the purpose of educating middle school children in the issues surrounding bees and how to help them.

THE PROBLEM The purpose of this product is to create awareness of the issues surrounding bees. Especially the number of wild bees has decreased heavily over the last 30 years, to a level where it is harmful to our food production and biodiversity in nature. The wild bees are helping us maintaining the planet and its population, by pollinating and thereby creating reliable supply of food. But they are dying at an alarming speed and many top scientists are warning against a possible catastrophe, so we decided to do something to help the bees.

THE SOLUTION We have found out that you can help the bees in three simple ways. You can grow flowers for them to eat, leave parts of nature alone for them to nest and you can stop using pesticides. These are quite simple things to do. So why arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t people doing them? We have talked to scientists, beekeepers and bee friendly organizations. Through them, we found out that the biggest issue is that many people are unaware of the importance of bees.

THE PRODUCT To solve this problem, we have developed a Beeducate kit, designed to inform and enlighten students about this problem. It can be implemented in different grades, but we are focusing on 10-12-year oldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. The kit can be used in an interdisciplinary school project or integrate bees in biology classes. Materials included in the kit, contains a DIY bee hotel, which can be monitored by the students to study the bees. It will also contain knowledge about bee friendly plants and specific learning material about the well-being of our earth.

THE GOAL The purpose of this kit is to educate future citizens about the importance of bees, through an interesting course, that includes subjects as biodiversity, food production and climate change. The worth of pollination in Denmark is estimated to be between 1,8-3 billion Danish kroner. If we could improve the spread of natural pollination by one percent, it would create an increase in value worth of 30 million Danish kroner. More importantly our product could help to strengthen biodiversity on earth and it would increase the production of quality food for the growing population and thereby help to feed the future generations.

Figure 1: Picture of at bee

Bachelor course Project no. 106

Beyond Styrofoam – A Life Cycle Analysis and EcoEfficiency Portfolio of Single-Use Containers (Polystyrene, Plastic, Biodegradable Plastic, Paper, and Aluminum) Annette Misiurak, Frances Ramsay, Xiaoyun Tang, Yuan Yuan UBC Environmental Science, University of British Columbia

INTRODUCTION The issue of waste generation is a rising global issue. One of the largest contributors to the waste stream are single-use containers. Styrofoam represents one of the most commonly used containers and is unrecyclable unless clean and free of food residue. The City of Vancouver plans on implementing a Styrofoam ban within the next five years [1]. Alternatives in the form of recyclable and compostable containers need to be explored to replace Styrofoam. This project is to compare the environmental impacts of compostable and recyclable single-use containers and determine businesses’ reasoning behind their choice of single-use container.

Methods A Life Cycle Analysis (LCA) was conducted to determine the environmental impacts of each respective container from the beginning to end-of-life stage. A survey was conducted at five restaurants of the UBC Village Basement to comprehend businesses’ motivation behind their choice of container and the factors that would encourage them to switch to a more environmentally friendly option.

Eco-Efficiency Analysis

Figure 1: The relative purchasing cost of various takeout containers (i.e. Aluminum, Polyethylene Terephthalate, Paper, Corn-Based Polylactic Acid, and Polypropylene) in relation to the relative global warming potential in kg CO2 equivalent. The containers in the

REFERENCES [1] City of Vancouver. (2017). Creating a Single-Use Item Reduction Strategy for disposable cups, take-out containers and shopping bags. Retrieved from http://Vancouver.ca/files/cov/single-use-consultation-paper-9-12-2017.pdf

Bachelor course Project no. 107

Breathe Easy Alexandra Tran, Alisher Tortay KAIST, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

AIR POLLUTION The world’s largest environmental health risk: air pollution is accelerating climate change and endangering the health of over 90% of people around the globe.

Social On Earth, 7 million human beings die every year from breathing polluted air. People suffer from stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, as well as acute and chronic respiratory conditions. Labour workers in the mining and construction industry have the highest exposure to respirable dust and are most vulnerable to suffering from debilitating diseases.

Environmental Climate change is exacerbated by air pollution, both short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) and long-lived carbon dioxide. Consequentially, pollution sources precipitate extreme weather events, unprecedented sea-level rise, drought and wildfires, and food shortages.

Economic The World Bank published that deaths caused by air pollution costs the global economy US$225 billion per year. Based on welfare losses, the aggregate cost of worldwide deaths totals to US$5 trillion each year. For mining and construction companies, the Breathe Easy system is an appropriate, affordable investment to protect the health and safety of workers.

TECHNICAL The substance that is most accountable for death and disease is particulate matter, specifically less than 2.5µm in diameter. Accordingly, the Breathe Easy wearable device detects PM2.5 within the breathing zone to reveal the worker’s personal exposure over time.

Figure 1: Sensor Network with Wearable Device and Artificial Intelligence Alert System

Design Specifications   

Wearable device monitors and alerts individual workers of exposure in real-time. Machine learning algorithms identify the location of pollution sources across worksites, which enables companies to rapidly mitigate emergency situations. Environmental Impact Assessments are automatically generated, since companies are legally obliged to report on pollution emissions as per International Standards.

Bachelor course Project no. 108

Climate Change F. M. Shan HKUST Environmental Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

WHAT IS CLIMATE CHANGE? -

Causes of climate change Briefly describe what will climate change impact human being

GLOBAL WARMING -

Causes of global warming Effects of warming

BIODIVERSITY -

Importance of rich biodiversity Global governance of biodiversity

SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION -

Consumption habits these days How to consume in a sustainable way

Bachelor course Project no. 109

Encouraging Recycling in Schools G. B. Gregersen, Z. Moradian, C. P. Diagne, N. Kisum and M. D. Schiller DTU Process & innovation, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION On average, a pupil disposes 36 kg of waste every year. Only a few percentages of the waste are recycled. There is a common absence of recycling bins at primary schools all around the country and the infrastructure is not capable of handling sorted waste from their classes. Meanwhile, the European Union (EU) has imposed all businesses, including schools, to recycle 70% of their waste by 2025. Schools are therefore facing an immense challenge to fulfill these goals. Many schools are ready to face the challenges associated with the EU terms but is lacking the tools to achieve these goals.

CONCEPT, SOLUTION & STRATEGY The concept is a recycling bin, specifically designed for schools to help facilitate sorting and recycling of trash. By letting the pupils personalize the recycling bin, we also make it more attractive to use and for the kids to encourage other pupils to sort their trash. This personalization is individual for each class and its part of a few lessons designed by us, in the advantages of recycling waste. These lessons also help the teacher complete some of the learning objectives in the class “nature and technology”. On top of the personalization, each fraction has their own distinct color, so the pupils know how to sort their trash in other classrooms. The recycling bin is modular and is thus adaptable and can be personalized at will. This way, a class that, for example, has a lot of glass-waste can install an extra compartment for this. The compartments are available in both full and half width. The bin is additionally on wheels, to ease the emptying of it at the school’s central waste sorting space. The compartments themselves, are dimensioned as though they won’t be too heavy to carry. LCA Materials Energy Chemistry

Materials Recycled plastic (PE), steel 50 MJ/kg + 30 MJ/kg Colors in plastic

Production 3kg co2 q/kg + 2,6 co2 q/kg 80,0 MJ/kg -

Use -1571 kg co2 q per year 50 kwh Soap

Disposal -1,5kg co2-q/kg -

Table 1: Life cycle assessment

Table 1 shows a life cycle assessment for our product. By comparing the total CO2 emissions from production to the negative CO2 total from using the trashcan, it becomes clear that our product will greatly reduce the emission of greenhouse gasses.

GOALS Our goal is to replace the recycling bins of traditional schools, where all waste is being thrown in the same bin with our system, to ease the sorting of waste in each class. Additionally, the system will encourage them to sort. By sorting waste at the school, the pupils are also educated in sorting trash and the advantages of this. They can then bring this knowledge home with them. Teaching and training kids about recycling and its advantages at an early age, ensures a green and sustainable foundation for the future.

Bachelor course Project no. 110

Development of Starter Cultures for Camel Cheese Production T. Angelo DTU Food, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION In east-African countries like Ethiopia and Somali, a major source of protein is found in camels and the milk they produce, though at current time there is only very limited dairy industry for camel milk found in these areas. This means that the milk is mainly used unhomogenized, which can lead to pathogen strains growing in the milk. This can cause diarrhea and infections in the intestines, which can have fatal consequences in poor societies. The Danida supported Haramaya Camel Dairy project has tried to tackle this issue by investigating in a possible dairy production, including the possibilities of making a cheese production. Cheese is, because of its conservational properties, a very good candidate for a healthy and easy manageable protein source in a place where resources are limited.

THE ROLE OF L. LACTIS To produce cheese an acidification of the milk is needed. This has been done for thousands of years in cows and goats using the natural occurring Lactococcus Lactis bacteria. In more recent years L. Lactis strains has been developed, using modern bioengineering methods, to promote the most efficient production of cheese in cows. These production strains have showed to be quite poor for the use in camel milk, probably because the chemical composition of camel milk is quite different than the one found in cow milk. This has lead to the work of finding more suitable production strains. Strains found naturally in camel milk, has shown more suitable properties here. This might be due to an alteration found in the surface protein complex (PrtP). This project has investigated PrtPs properties to understand its role for well-known dairy strains.

METHOD The hypothesis of PrtPs adhesion to the casein micelles, found in milk, has been tried investigated using SDS-gels.

CONCLUSION: The SDS-gels has showed to be a poor candidate to prove the believed adhesion between the PrtP complex and casein micelles. To investigate the hypothesis further, a change to methods like ELISA or Scanning electron microscopy is suggested. N.B. A detailed instruction can be found on the following pages including how to use figures, tables and lists.

Bachelor course Project no. 111

Disposable Mobile Trash Bin – One Step Closer to You O. Pilo, S. K. Lindvig, N. N. Frausing, L. C. R. Vinther, A. H. Petersen, and N. Fleischer DTU BEng – Process & Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION As our consumption increases so do the amount of general waste. This results in an increase in the amount of waste ending up in nature, especially in the big cities. The municipality of Copenhagen spends 210 million DKK annually, to clean up city and public spaces. Cigarette butts, capsules and wrapping paper are the most common waste found in the public areas of the municipality of Copenhagen. It takes two years to decompose ordinary wrapping paper, four years to decompose a cigarette butt in nature and 100 years to decompose a capsule. This is a problem we can’t escape but must face before it’s too late.

THEORY The Danish picnic culture encourages people to leave their waste in public spaces and green areas, instead of throwing it in the trash bins. It encourages this behavior due to the existing waste which lies in the streets and parks. Waste develops waste. When people see waste lying in the parks and public spaces, they develop a tendency to leave their waste as well, thus creating a never-ending cycle of public waste.

Figure 1: Why do you choose to throw cigarette butts on the ground?

OUR VISION We want to accommodate this behavior of people leaving their waste behind by developing a disposable mobile trash bin that will encourage the user to dispose their waste. We want to do that by bringing the bin to the users, so they can keep their picnic area and take their waste out in one go. Even though it's only a couple of meters to the trash bin, it is those meters that determine whether the waste ends on the ground or in the trash bin. We want to use the concept behind public placed newspaper stands to offer a disposable bin, the user can take with them for free, to use in public spaces and green areas. Our product offers a non-intrusive, easy to use solution to combat the downsides of picnic culture.

REFERENCES Teknik- og Miljøforvaltningen, Københavns Kommune. (2017). Løsninger til skodde-adfærd. KL/7 adfærdsdesign.

Bachelor course Project no. 112

Eco Points F. Hannesson, M. Duda and M. Ulsnes Copenhagen Business School

INTRODUCTION Consumer attitudes are moving towards sustainable development, and the demand for transparency in organizations is growing. The food retailing industry accounts for a significant impact on the environment, with an estimated 31% of the EU’s total Greenhouse Emissions resulting from food supply chain operations. 66% of grocery store consumers say they are willing to pay more for products made by companies committed to positive social and environmental impact. Research suggests sustainable consumption can be increased by providing consumers with information about purchasing decisions that reduce their carbon footprint. A range of eco-certificates already exist but have been shown to confuse consumers, rendering the impact of labels limited. Households have limited ability to influence many aspects of their carbon footprint. This is also the case with grocery shopping, hence large supermarket chains stand well-positioned to leverage an innovation that creates value for consumers, increases profit margins, and benefits the environment. Our solution innovates consumers and grocery stores to drive responsible consumption and production.

Solution Supermarkets should adopt a value-creating point-based ranking system, called Eco Points. The system gives an indication of the sustainability of the product. Customers will be incentivized through rewards, such as personalized offers, discounts on sustainable products, and planting of a tree in their name. Rewards are made available to the consumer when they accumulate a certain amount of points. Each product carries between one to five points depending on its sustainability level. The points each product carries are displayed on the Eco Points label on the product’s price tag. The points are integrated into a supermarket’s loyalty program, and consumers will see an overview of their purchases’ sustainability, amount of points, and available rewards, through a mobile application and a website. That way, Eco Points enable households to adjust their habits to become more sustainable. The sustainability of a product is measured on 7 components: material use, energy use, water use, waste and emissions, space use, transport, and organic products. The scale in table 1 defines the criteria needed to receive a certain amount of Eco Points. 1 (Slightly Sustainable) The product fulfills one to two components of the sustainability criteria.

2 (Fairly Sustainable) The product fulfills three to four components of the sustainability criteria.

3(Quite Sustainable) The product fulfills five components of the sustainability criteria.

4 (Very Sustainable) The product fulfills six components of the sustainability criteria.

5 (Completely Sustainable) The product fulfills all seven components of the sustainability criteria.

Table 1: The Eco Points scale and criteria

Future Prospects

In the long-run, Eco Points can shift demand to more sustainable products and supermarkets will benefit from increased sales of products with higher price premiums. Additionally, the positive publicity might encourage customers to shop more sustainably. This could in turn force manufacturers of less sustainable goods to switch to more sustainable production – resulting in a positive impact on the environment.

Bachelor course Project no. 113

Eco-Breaker Nick Hale1, Jose Velez1, Eva Andreakou2 and Mark Malloy3 1John Hopkins Univeristy Design and Innovation, Techincal University of Denmark 3DTU Earth and Space Physics and Engineering, Technical University of Denmark 2DTU

INTRODUCTION As households annually increase their power consumption, the amount of electricity that is also wasted increases. Today, many households have multiple computers, televisions, and smart devices that are some of the culprits behind our high idle power consumption. According to many sources, up to 15% of our electricity consumption is consumed by idle devices and appliances. Furthermore, the New York Times has stated that this issue is not exclusive to Denmark, but that the average American household uses a quarter of its total energy usage on idle devices and appliances. We believe that this is a hugely underrated issue, and decided to look for creative solutions to combat idle power consumption. Our goal and effort is to reduce the average households power footprint while also saving money on their electricity bill.

SOLUTION We call our solution Eco-Breaker, which is a supplemental technology for circuit breakers. We are expecting that the subsequent processing power for Eco-Breaker to work is low, which helps us increase the affordability and spread of our device. The purpose of EcoBreaker is to help us transition to smarter and more efficient households by substituting inefficient breaker panel systems. By relying on big data and optimization models, EcoBreaker will allow us to reduce the electricity consumption while leading the way to smarter house grids. Eco-Breaker will work as an add-on to current householdâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s breaker panels, while paving the way for standalone systems for new houses, apartments and one day large offices.

RISKS AND CHALLENGES

One of the main challenges of Eco-Breaker is being able to design a supplemental device to a households circuit breaker, that is versatile enough to optimally work alongside households with completely different circuit layouts. Not only this, but one of our goals is to design a product that people can install themselves. If people arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t comfortable enough with installing Eco-Breaker, then we will also offer trained electricians that can perform the installation as well. The financial risk and general outcome of our prototyping/pilot will be crucial to determine the effective value and necessity of our product. It will take us a lot of work to optimize our models to help improve the efficiency of the product, but Eco-Breaker will still aim to noticeably reduce the idle power consumption of households.

Bachelor course Project no. 114

Electrical Car - Creating the Engineers of Tomorrow S. J. Kirk and C. E. G. Christensen DTU Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Personal transportation today is dominated by cars running on fossile fuel, causing emission of unneeded green house gasses that stress and damage our climate everyday. One way to fight the emission from personal transportation is to change to electrical cars. The knowledge and skill to build electrical cars is mainly held by large automotive companies today. The aim of our project is to give students at DTU the ability to design and build the functional elements needed for making an electrical car.

THEORY A safe design, structurally and electrically, is necessary when designing a personal transportation vehicle. Areas that the students will be involved in are vibration and suspension designs, building battery-packs, controlling high voltage electronics, advanced motor control, strength calculation, finite element analysis of chassis and upright, wireless communication and control of the vehicle. Future projects include the possibility to include a autonomous driving control of an electrical car.

METHODS This project aims to reach the goal of allowing DTU students to have the ability to be a leading role in the development of new electrical transportation vehicles. The road to succes, builds on the initiative and will of the founders of the student Group Vermilion Racing, who in collaboration with DTU SKYLAB and DTU Elektro, are inspiring student to join the project and help design and build an electrical race car. Through student designed special courses, the student are building an electrical cal which complies with a 100+ page rulebook, which means the car can compete in an international university competition for electrical cars. The aim with the project is to inspire enough students and staff at DTU, so the project is made into a blue dot course at DTU. This would allow the team to include more than 50 student per semester, and help the project not rely solely on sponsorships and grants. Every year a new and improved car will be designed and build based on the lessons of the past, allowing for a course in which new students will learn the fundamentals themselves, and not just be handed an already build car to just make minor adjustments to.

RESULTS Through student efforts, we have amassed enough sponsorships to build a car within a year. Almost 50 students are currently working on the project, and the first iteration will be ready by the start of this July. The students will have incredible knowledge in building a real world electrical car, previously unattainable at DTU. This will be the basis for many years of teaching new students the way of sustainable transportation.

Bachelor course Project no. 115

EmptyFridge J. Indrapiromkul1 and J. Yonchorhor2 1School

2School

of Computing, KAIST of Electrical Engineering, KAIST

INTRODUCTION

There are many stages in food supply chain that contribute to food losses, however, household alone accounts for more than a third of total amount (Gustavsson et al.). Among factors such as food spoilage, over-preparing, data-label confusion, 49% of food waste from household is a result of excessive purchase, food spoilage and poor meal plan (GRACE, Abdelradi). This project aims at mitigating this problem by creating an application to suggest a better meal plan that reduces amount of unused ingredients.

OBJECTIVE

To reduce food waste from household caused by excessive purchase and poor meal planning

METHOD EmptyFridge is an application that suggests a meal plan to lower amount of unused ingredients. It lets a user select a set of menus to make, then calculate amount of unused ingredients using the information about packaging portion. Together with production cost penalty and shelf life penalty, waste score of the menu set can be evaluated. Finally, the application provides the user with substitutions of some menus that would lower the total waste score.

APPLICATION EmptyFridge can be used as an extension of online grocery stores as they have product information and user base. It will give the stores a competitive edge in an eco-friendly market trend. With our application, users still have a freedom to choose their own set of meals. For average users, this would offer them a way to reduce food waste without radically changing their consuming behavior, making it easy and thus more likely to be adopted by a large group of users.

EXPECTATION By providing information about leftover ingredients and offering alternatives, EmptyFridge can reduce excessive purchase and poor meal plan which accounts for 49% of household food waste. As a consequence, it is expected to have an impact on 17% (approximately 230 million tons) of the total food loss.

FUTURE IMPROVEMENT EmptyFridge can assist users in making and optimizing meal schedule. With this improvement, the waste evaluation will be more sensitive to expiration date of each ingredients. On the top of that, the application can automatically place an online order of ingredients for the user according to the schedule. This functionality can decrease complication users would have to go through in manually matching the schedule with grocery shopping.

Bachelor course Project no. 116

Green Energy - Produced by Forest and Agricultural Residues N. Theofanous AUTH Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

INTRODUCTION We live in a world characterized by overwhelming environmental challenges. We must try to tackle the effects of global warming, the problem creating by both overpopulation and overconsumption and the reduction of natural resources. The majority of cities all over the world consume fossil fuels in order to produce electricity, as a result the concentration of various greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached the highest levels ever recorded. The nature provides to us vast amounts of raw materials (Biomass) that can be used as the main source in energy production procedure. Biomass is a sustainable and renewable source of energy, can be used to create electricity or other forms of power.

CONCEPT With the vision of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;renewable energy productionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; and the wish of sustainable management of forests and agriculture areas, came the idea of creating a complete management plan of a biomass wood generation plant, consuming forest and agricultural residues. It is generally known that only the trunk of a tree can be used, in terms of industrial use. The rest parts of a tree (branches, the top) remain to the forest floor, until enter to the ground through the procedure of decomposition. The main idea is based in use of these residues as the main source of producing energy. The residues through some generally known methods produce two types of fuels (bio-oil, syngas). Therefore, both of above mentioned methods follow the same procedure in order to produce energy. The steps include the use of burning fuels in the frame of gas turbine and the connection between gas turbine and generator, which will produce electricity. The final step, in terms of sustainability includes returning back to the forest the ash. With the help of a UAV or manually can achieved the return of the ashnutrients back to the forest.

VISION The next step includes the use of agricultural residues (cotton, wheat and corn stalks) and the residues coming from tree lines under the prism of constantly increasing amounts of energy, trying to achieve a decrease in the use of the fossil fuels in the frames of electricity production procedure.

Bachelor course Project no. 117

EcoMonitor: Hark Technologies T. K. GJERDE NTNU Electrical engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology INTRODUCTION As energy consumption rises across the globe, we should not only be concerned with coming up with new and improved ways of generating and storing energy, but we should also have a good look at how we currently consume energy. EcoMonitor is a neat little device that plugs directly into the HAN –port on the new (AMS) electricity meters being phased in, in Scandinavia and other European countries. The EcoMonitor paired with a cloud solution for data processing gives the user a unique insight in the total electricity usage throughout the day and week – with a resolution down to seconds. This enables greater insight and a way of understanding power usage for the average consumer. The goal and aim for the system developed by hark technologies is not only to be a way of gathering and presenting data about power usage but to also to use this data and automate our homes and this way ultimately save electricity – True power optimization enabled by technology!

Figure 1: Detailed real time graphs of current on the different phases.

CONCLUSION EcoMonitor has already identified costly errors in the setup of consumption control systems in both private and commercial buildings, as well as errors in electrical wiring and installations. With EcoMonitor electrical systems can be optimized, errors can be both discovered and prevented, and our understanding of electricity usage broadened.

Bachelor course Project no. 118

HYPHABOX F. E. Bruun, J. G. Thisted, K. Rander, M. D. Kristensen, M. W. Elvebakken and M. Lisberg DTU Process and Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Our concept takes focus on the production and use of transportation boxes for food products. We present a product which we believe, is ecologically stronger than the current standards, currently ruling the market. By having a big focus on a green production, we will have a positive and sustainable impact on UN’s 12th world goal, “responsible consumption and production”.

THE PROBLEM A lot of the current boxes for food products, consists of expanded polystyrene (EPS), which is used for transportation, protection and isolation. Unfortunately, this product is made of fossil fuels and once this product makes its way out to the open green nature, it takes several thousands of years to break down and decompose. If only we somehow could make a transportation box, which will not pollute our nature, since it inevitably will end up there in the end. We, HyphaBox, offer a solution, that will take less than a month to break down through natural processes, and consists of biological materials only.

THE SOLUTION The problematic of plastic wastes can be improved through the use of a material called “mycelium”. This material consists of the root-net of mushrooms, and individually these roots is known as hyphae. Combining this and externally added wooden fibers, we create a strong material, which is very light and more durable than its EPS-counterpart. Through this material, we will make it possible to create a replacement for many EPS-based products, and decrease the environmental pollution, that exists by the use and production of EPS plastics. Moreover, we have documented and compared the use of mycelium to plastics, through a LCA-analysis, and argues for mycelium’s green potential as a sustainable solution for the replacement of the current transportation boxes for the great variety of food products.

Bachelor course Project no. 119

ISO BRICK: Integrating Containers J. O. Andersen BEng Process and Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION It’s becoming more and more popular to use cheap shipping containers for temporary recyclable installations around the world. With ISO_BRIC, we wish to create value for the user who’s sharing our viewpoint, offering them greater flexibility on their journey towards their vision; how can they construct pop-up stores, festival-shelters, recreational facilities, solutions for the construction industry and temporary storage the most cost-effective and useful way for their customers or themselves.

PROBLEM The flexibility regarding the integration of a container construction is one of the biggest challenges. It makes it hard to operate a business in balance with the local community and that, in turn, challenges the upcycling of these ISO-units. It almost doesn’t matter what is done to the exterior, often the result will be unaesthetic and indecent. Another problem is the definition of inside and outside; it’s very clearly defined in a container, and that makes it kind of a minor ultimatum if people want to go inside or not – something that is also bad for business. Though different ISO-containers can be joined together to maximize the indoors area, it’s an expensive and time demanding process, which very possibility depends on the compatibility between the size of the ISO-units involved.

SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM The ISO_BRIC is the ultimate multi-purpose unit for module-construction with ISO-containers. First, it’s a fixation point, with then also, depending on what you fixate to it, acts as a connection between the container and the surroundings – a solution to the problem mentioned above, which integrates the surrounding area into the very modular concept. Besides, the ISO_BRIC makes it possible for the users to maximize their commercial- or storage area, which is a cheap way to buy value for money. Mounting an ISO_BRIC arrangement is intuitive and requires no special tools or professional expertise and taking it down is also a simple process as there are no welds to be broken up or other complex joints risking the recyclability of any of the components.

Bachelor course Project no. 120

Light Transforming Material for Optimized Crops Production S. Petersen1, R. Friis2, L. Kastell3 and J. Franck2 1DTU

Earth and Space Physics and Engineering, Technical University of Denmark Human Life Science Engineering, Technical University of Denmark 3DTU Biotechnology, Technical University of Denmark 4DTU Architectural Engineering, Technical university of Denmark

2DTU

INTRODUCTION The product is a material containing chromophores, which are light sensitive molecules. Through a mechanism called Förster resonance energy transfer (shortened FRET), the molecules can change the wavelength of incoming light. By using a specific pair of molecules, the material can be applied in the greenhouse industry by changing green light to red light, allowing plants to absorb more energy for photosynthesis. This can be applied in the greenhouse industry to produce more crops and replace energy consuming growth lights.

THEORY Photosynthesis Photosynthesis is used by plants to produce glucoses. The energy needed for this process, is gathered from incoming photons. Glucoses is essential for plants to grow and bear bighealthy fruits. The photosynthesis happens in chloroplasts located in the leaves. The chloroplasts contain chlorophyll, which are organelles that absorb the sunlight. Specific wavelengths are more preferable than others. Blue light and red light are the most absorbed wavelength, while green is almost entirely reflected – hence the green color of leaves. The wasted energy from the green light could potentially be used to increase the photosynthesis in plants by our environmental friendly and sustainable technology.

Förster resonance energy transfer Light sensitive molecules are called chromophores, where the donor molecule absorbs the photon and transfers it to the acceptor molecule, which emits a photon in a new wavelength. The energy transfer between two chromophores are called Förster resonance energy transfer, and the efficiency of the transfer depends on the distance between the molecules, the orientation and the inherent structure.

APPLICATION FRET is mostly used as a resolution for biological reasons, as the technique can be used to measure small distances. However, it is possible to create solid material. By making a solid material, the distance and orientation of the molecules can be optimized to allow for a more efficient transfer of energy. It is therefore very desirable to create a transparent film or plastic that can be used in the increasingly bigger greenhouse industry, to increase food production in a sustainable manner. Furthermore, it is common to use energy consuming growth-lights in the gardening industry. The product might be able to supplement or even replace those.

Bachelor course Project no. 121

Development of Machine to Ease Beach Cleaning by Volunteers J. S. U. Larsen, L. Werngreen-Nielsen, M. A. Löchte, M. F. Enderlein, M. Morbelli-Zinck, and R. C. Pedersen DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Many beaches and coastlines across the world are polluted with marine litter. It can have endangering consequences for wildlife living on the shoreline and in the seas. Furthermore, the pollution of beaches can have consequences for tourism in the local area since few people are likely to visit and enjoy a beach contaminated with waste. The problem is caused by wrong waste management in the region or by pollution in the sea from where litter is washed ashore.

Garbage Emergency in Bali In December 2017 the government in Bali, Indonesia declared a “Garbage Emergency” since several beaches in the most popular tourist destinations were polluted with waste. The island is now facing a severe challenge to stop the pollution and remain a desired holiday destination as their only real means of income is tourism. It is left to local workers and volunteers to keep the beaches clean since there is no official waste management system. This has led to a rise of local beach clean organisations, who are doing their best to keep beaches clean and to educate locals on correct waste disposal.

PURPOSE This project focuses on a solution to clean beaches which are already polluted, trying to prevent the litter from being swept out to sea and to avoid tourists being repelled by contaminated beaches. At the moment volunteers primarily pick up the litter by hand and it’s therefore desirable to make a mechanical solution to make the cleaning faster or easier for them.

METHODS To determine which challenges the volunteers encounter during beach cleaning a questionnaire was sent to seven local beach clean organisations in Bali and their answers were interpreted into criteria for the product. Models of different mechanisms of garbage collection were built and tested and a final concept was selected and refined to a prototype in June. A lifecycle check was made (in June as well) to ensure that the machine is a sustainable solution.

PRELIMINARY CONCLUSION The biggest challenge for the volunteers is small pieces of garbage which are timeconsuming to collect. The machine should therefore be able to collect these to ease the beach cleaning. It should be environmentally efficient and not create more pollution than it eliminates.

Bachelor course Project no. 122

Methods for Further Understanding Staphylococcal Infections I. N. Laforce and L. Friis DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION The two staphylococci strains; Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis) are the most frequent cause of skin infections in hospitals and cause infection around indwelling medical devices, such as catheters or needles. S. aureus alone is found on 20-50% of the human population and are transferred from person to person by touch and can infect open wounds. After infection, the bacteria divide every half hour and after only ten hours the infected area could have more than a million bacteria. By luck, antibiotics will kill the bacteria and stop the infection, but the bacteria may already be resistant. This is often the case because the majority of staphylococcal infections in humans are caused by a methicillin-resistant strain of S. aureus (MRSA).It is therefore important to do research concerning the pathogenic ways of staphylococci to prevent and improve treatment of skin and other infections, especially in hospital environments. To study staphylococci we need to be able to manipulate them, by transferring DNA to them. When able to transfer DNA we can knockout genes and thereby investigate their pathogenic ways, or make them e.g. fluorescent, making it possible to see how they spread in a hospital infection. But transferring DNA is complicated due to four types of restriction-modification (RM) system, which will recognize and cut up foreign DNA. These systems are very different in different strains of staphylococci and we have focused on the types present in S. aureus, which are very similar to those in S. epidermidis. To study how to overcome these systems we performed an experiment.

METHODS In the experiment, we investigated the possibilities of gene transfer by electroporation between Escherichia coli (E. coli) and strains of S. aureus. The applied plasmids were isolated from E. coli and a strain of S. aureus, and we expected that only the plasmid isolated from the S. aureus strain should be able to overcome the RM systems in other S. aureus strains. We tested whether these plasmids could be accepted by two clinical strains of S. aureus (Newman and MN8), which we presumed had functional RM systems, the S. aureus strain RN4220, which have a nonfunctional RM system, and a strain of E. coli (DH5Îą). The plasmids that we tried to transfer were GFP and RFP, which makes the strains green and red fluorescent.

RESULTS The experiment showed that only DNA isolated from S. aureus strains can be transferred without restriction to other S. aureus strains, and DNA isolated from E. coli can be transferred to RN42220. Therefore we can conclude that RN4220 can be used as an intermediary for transferring DNA from E. coli to other S. aureus strains. The strains that became fluorescent are further used for investigating how the staphylococci spread in hospital infections.

Bachelor course Project no. 123

Online Fundraising for Humanitarian and Environmental Causes A. GĂ¸ricke, M. Guldborg DTU Software Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION We have developed an online system for raising funds for humanitarian and environmental causes. The system works by prompting users when buying from an online store. For every purchase the customer gets to choose one of three possible causes. The company then donates a specific amount to the selected cause. This is beneficial to the company, because itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s good publicity, directed at its core audience. The customer will not have to pay more for their purchase. We see a lot of potential for this system as customers care about the values of the brands they buy from and are increasingly making purchase decisions based on this.

THEORY The system has been developed using a wide variety of software tools. To implement such a system into already existing online shops required theory of the handling of sensitive data exchanged at purchase and furthermore how to verify these purchases. The system incorporates a lot of computational theory in how it processes data and as expected for an online system has required theory on the basis of connecting to databases and reading and writing information. All these can be described as fundamental computational theory.

METHODS The methods used in this project has primarily revolved around basic computational theory and software theory. We have used test-driven software development as a method for critical parts of our system. Agile software development has been used for less critical parts of the system, such as the graphical interface and parts not sensitive to exploits where personal data could be retrieved.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION We have succeeded in developing an online system capable of most of the features that we sought out to implement. The system still needs further development before we are confident in releasing it to a broader audience, but the main functions of the system acts as intended. We are currently working on further developing the system. Our upcoming goal for the project will be to seek partners and brands who will be willing to implement our service.

Bachelor course Project no. 124

Organic Heating Systems E. W. D. Harris, S. F. Avalon, C. Skriver, K. E. Gielov and R. M. Martinsen 1DTU

Process and Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Greenhouses have long been a staple of modern agriculture. In the northern hemisphere they have become a necessary tool with which farmers can supply people with foods that would otherwise be impossible to grow due to the nature of the harsh northern climates. As one could imagine, the main challenges in running these greenhouses are that of maintaining the right temperatures for agricultural efficacy.

ORGANIC HEATING SYSTEMS Organic Heating Systems aim is to introduce the Danish greenhouse industry to the potentials of static pile compost heat recovery systems. We are five DTU students with a desire to develop innovative technologies and implement them in a sustainable context. We are in the midsts of developing an alternative heating system to the current oil and gas burning furnaces that are the norm among the Danish greenhouses. The system we are developing is called KOVAS. The main focus of our development strategy is twofold. First of all, this system will be easy to implement in existing greenhouse heating systems and will be able to piggyback off of the water heating pipes that are currently used as the main heat exchangers. Secondly, this system could potentially save money, in that the system is dependent on compost, so the farmers won’t have to spend money on fuel for their furnaces. The compost used to heat the system will be supplied by the customers and the Danish municipalities. According to the Danish newspaper Ingeniøren, many municipalities have a hard time effectively disposing of their organic waste. Our system seeks to help create a symbiotic relationship in which the municipalities gets a solution to their excessive organic waste problem, and the greenhouses save money on their heating solutions. The heating system consists of a 40’(40 feet or 12,2 m) shipping container as our main framework to facilitate the composting process. As it stands, the average Danish greenhouse spends around 320 kWh a year on heating just 1 m² of the greenhouse. Our main customer base would be greenhouses of around 200 m². To heat a greenhouse of this size would cost 60.584 DKK a year in oil. Not only that, but this would require 5.882 L of oil (diesel in most cases), which would produce approximately 15.293 kg of carbon dioxide emissions. The greenhouse gas production in composting is comparatively negligible, and we could therefore potentially save a minimum of 15 tonnes of carbon emissions per greenhouse that we supply heat to.

WHY COMPOST? We have read a variety of research papers on the subject as well as conducted a series of interviews with Danish greenhouses and a consulting firm that specializes in heating solutions. We have determined that the customer base is there, as long as there is money to save and a decrease in the greenhouses carbon footprint. We believe that we can provide that solution and that the market is ripe for an innovative and effective solution to greenhouse heating

Bachelor course Project no. 125

Paper Pavilion S. Rydberg, C. MĂ¸ller, S. Sander, K. Nagulrum and M. Solheim DTU Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Paper Pavilion is a pavilion made of paper tubes and textile. It is and experimental structure working with themes such as design for disassembly, alternative materials, modularity and minimal structure. The aim of the design process was to work with a number of essential sustainability principles and to design a classic Roskilde Festival landmark.

DESIGN FOR DISASSEMBLY The main components of the pavilion are designed with the mantra that it should be possible assemble and disassemble the pavilion on site without the use of tools. The aim is to ensure an efficient reuse of the pavilion - both as a whole and as separate parts - with minimal damage and waste. The main structural components: the paper tubes are in an uncut and unperforated state and can be reused for other purposes without further processing.

MATERIALS The paper tubes are made from recycled paper. The tubes have been lab-tested for strength as part of the design process and shows surprising strength comparable to timber. The textile panel is the other main material. The aim of using textile is to provide shelter for the elements and to stabilize the pavilion crosswise with a minimal use of structural material.

MODULARITY The basic shape of the pavilion is highly modular and it can be transformed in many shapes and for other purposes without changing or adding parts. The joints themselves are designed to accommodate other space-frame geometries and can be used as a catalyst for other materials than paper tubes and textile. In that sense the design is an exploration of a universal building principle that can have many forms and purposes.

Figur 1: Rendering of the Paper Pavilion

Bachelor course Project no. 126

Peak Shaving of Power Consumption at Roskilde Festival’s Food Court A. S. Seligmann, M. W. Justesen, and A. Gamborg DTU Electro, Technical University of Denmark

MOTIVATION In former years the festival known as Roskilde Festival was forced to power up multiple largescale diesel driven generators to cover their power consumption. One of these generators has earlier been devoted to the Food Court, the motivation for our project is to make this generator obsolete. The strategy to do this is to control the power consumption of two cooling containers and seven electric cars depending on the real-time consumption of all of Food Court. Furthermore, this project is a demonstration of the technology used for peak shaving purposes, generally called “Smart-grid technology”. We aim to show that the technology works on a large scale, hereby pathing the way for future project of even bigger scale.

SMART-GRID TECHNOLOGY The strategy behind our solution is to distribute the power consumption of the Food Court such that the total consumption of Food Court never exceeds the maximum allowed consumption of the grid. This idea of consumption distribution is called “peak shaving”. In this project we will perform peak shaving in two ways.

Cooling containers We will have access to two cooling containers, which are huge loads on the grid. Cooling containers are perfect for peak shaving operations, as they can retain the temperature for a long time if they are turned off. In fact, most refrigerators turn off and back on in order to keep their temperature below the required.

Electric cars Nissan have provided us with seven electric cars. These cars will be stationed at the Food Court. One key ability of the cars is that they are capable of delivering power to the grid, through their charger. We will utilize this ability to achieve even better peak shaving.

VIABILITY The technology which will be utilized has been proven on a small scale at last year’s festival (see references). Thus, we are using technology which is already available and deploying it on a much larger scale, with a far larger impact, which will be the first time peak shaving of this size has been seen at Roskilde Festival. Peak shaving is an up and coming balancing technology, which can be deployed in a modular fashion, and is therefore something we will see more of when we move towards a future with greener energy manufacturing methods.

REFERENCES Lykke Wanger, Stine. (11-07-2017). DTU students help make the power flow more efficient at Roskilde Festival. Retrieved from: http://www.dtu.dk/english/research/research-atdtu/research-news/nyhed?id=C0AC8A76-6D05-436C-9098-E19A246A1499

Bachelor course Project no. 127

Pre-heating Stage in Thermal Power Plant A. Wijaya, G. Wibowo, D. Lin BEng Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Nottingham Ningbo China Over the centuries, major problems for renewable and sustainable energy sources are cost and efficiency. Thermal power plant is the most widely used facility for electricity generation until today benefit from its economic and robust operation. Fossil fuels is normally used as energy source to heat up water into steam, which is then used to drive steam turbine and generate electricity. Environmental problems associated with thermal power plant today is the emission of pollutants (particulates, CO2, NOx, and SO2) originated from the combustion of impurities in the fuel. To reduce the overall environmental impact of a thermal plant, solar energy can be used to pre-heat the water as the initial stage of a thermal power plant. Fresnel lens (compact convex lens) will be employed to concentrate the solar power to the pre-heating chamber, where the temperature of water can be heated up prior to entering the boiler. Thermal radiation from the sun could be used for heating purpose. If the sunlight is focused by a lens to one point, energy contained in the thermal radiation could be harvested. When light rays pass through a convex lens (a type of lens usually used for magnification), it will be focused to one point. The lens used in this project is a slimmer and cheaper version of convex lens called Fresnel lens. Fresnel lens divides the lens into a set of concentric annular sections which has a ‘focal length’ and ‘light rays bending effect’ similar to conventional lens. Fresnel Lens

Metal Pillars

Lens Stand Water Tube / Container (act as heat conductor) made from cast iron

Figure 1: Pre-Heating Tube with Fresnel Lens and Metal Pillars inside the Tube

Figure 1 shows the schematics of the proposed design that will supplement conventional boiling process through harvesting solar energy. It works by raising the temperature of the water up to 60.63℃ before it enters the main boiler and thus, reduce the overall coal consumption up to 7.4% for electricity generation. Consequently, the overall environmental impact of the plant operation can be mitigated with reduced amount of greenhouses gases emission. There will also be metal pillars in the tube to help transferring the heat from the top of the tube to the water inside the tube. The container was made of cast iron. Cast iron is a good heat conductor and at the same time, it has a higher melting point (1535 ℃). Next, the proposed pre-heat supplement is preferred in warm areas such as tropical areas to maximize its benefit. However, this project has a wide applicability whereas, if there is sunlight, this system will work. Based on the calculation, this project cost no more than 20,000 USD. This means that it is feasible and can also be made in a reasonable timeframe as all the technologies are ready. In the future, solar pre-heating unit can also be employed in other power plants.

Bachelor course Project no. 128

Prima Towards a Healthy Work Environment A. B. Astrup, C. L. Saxman, J. T. Lund, M. Glavind and T. L. Berg DTU Process & Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION

Today we push ourselves to the limit, with work, social life and sport. Many people aim to be the best version of them self in all areas and want to please everybody - an ideal that has its consequences and results in stress disorders for a lot of people. The proof of stress related diseases is stunning and scary, more than 430.000 (Stressforeningen, 2018) Danes experience symptoms daily. Therefore, we have decided to develop an app, to fight stress at highly stressful work environments. Stress is a disease that affects people individually and therefore this solution should differentiate depending on the individual. Knowing this, our team concluded that the app must vary its output depending on the user. The goal for our system is to create awareness on your well-being and stress-level and nudge people to deal with the core issues that might otherwise lead to a severe stress disorder. By nipping the bud, we aim to change their behavior or environment into a less stressful one.

THEORY

The National Danish Research Centre for the Work Environment (NFA) has worked on a psychosocial questionnaire, as a tool to measure the balance between the assigned resources, and the given workload. Their research indicates that this is an effective tool for screening employees for stress and other related psychosocial consequences. This research is the basis of our solution, and we developed our prototypes and concept from it.

METHODS AND RESULTS

We have used the Design Thinking method as a strategy for our work, to help us solve a problem, which our users are actually considering as a problem. The method have helped us to firstly understand and empathize with our end-user, through interviews and conversations with experts from NFA, and employees at stressful work environments. The Institute of work environment has based several stress studies on the resource/workload balance as a stress indicator, and employees and managers at a major Danish company agree, that our solution is interesting, and has a potential of preventing stress.

CONCLUSION

The idea is that the app will create awareness on your well-being and stress-level and nudge people to deal with the issue on an early stage, and for them to change their behavior or environment into a less stressful one. The interest from both NFA, employees and managers at a major Danish company, suggest this solution could help making Danish work environments sustainable.

REFERENCES

Stressforeningen. (2018). Stress og statistik | Stressforeningen. [online] Available at: http://www.stressforeningen.dk/stress-og-statistik/ [Accessed 16 May 2018].

Bachelor course Project no. 129

Probiotic for Aquacultures J. N. Clifford, R. M. R. Mortensen, and P.B. Svendsen DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Diminishing populations of fish due to overfishing have led to aquaculture becoming a promising prospect for resolving an ever increasing demand for food. However, fish pathogens such as V. anguillarum cause disease outbreaks in larvicultures and prevent the aquaculture industry from reaching its full potential. The widespread use of antibiotics in combating these pathogens is resulting in an increasing number of pathogens becoming multidrug resistant. Consequently, developing a more sustainable alternative to antibiotics for use in aquaculture has come of interest.

SOLUTION Here probiotics could be a suitable replacement to combat pathogens. Potential candidates are certain bacteria of the Roseobacter clade that produce secondary metabolites such as the blue pigment indigoidine, which have exhibited antimicrobial effects against a range of fish pathogens. Here, we consider the putative indigoidine-producing strains L. aquaemixtae, L. caerulea and L. daeponensis and their antimicrobial properties against V. anguillarum.

CONCLUSION In conclusion, all three strains harbor the necessary gene cluster to synthesize indigoidine, but we were unable to induce L. daeponensis to produce any blue pigment. Furthermore, only L. aquaemixtae showed antibacterial properties against V. anguillarum. Therefore, of the 3 investigated bacterial strains, L. aquaemixtae appears to be the most promising candidate for use as a probiotic in aquaculture.

Bachelor course Project no. 130

RainFlush, Water Preservation and Security I. L. Nikolajsen, L. Hamre, C. Askgaard, C. Frøsig, L. F. Skovgaard, C. Holm og O. T. Scheel DTU Process and Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

THE ISSUE AT HAND In Denmark we’re fortuned to have a vast amount of drinkable water in our sub terrain. Due to this, the lack of access to clean water, has never been a proper concern of the Danish people. Our vast deposit of clean water is, however, shrinking at a rapid pace. The reduction in the amount of clean water in the Danish sub terrain, is partly due to contamination by pesticides, originating from the agriculture utilizing the land, and general pollution, but the main issue is that our consumption of water is higher, than the rate of replenishment. This consumption includes, about a third of the total consumption per person, literally being flushed down the toilet. At the same time, Denmark is a country, with a massive amount of downpour every year, a resource we’re not yet using in any mentionable scale. According to DMI, Danish Meteorological Institute, there have been an increase in downpour of 100 mm, over the last 150 years. Further research indicates, that the amount of downpour will increase with between 1,6 and 6,9 percent. The increase of downpour is already visible, in the number of cloudburst per year, leading to an increased number of floods in the urban areas.

RAINFLUSH Our solution, RainFlush, consist of a water gathering system, that will collect rainwater, through the buildings own drainage system and store it in an underground storage tank. This water will be utilized as a replacement, for drinking water in our toilets. This way, we will potentially reduce the consumption per person, by almost a third. Hereby the rate, at which we spend our water reserve below the surface. Furthermore, the user will experience an economic advantage, as the total amount of money, paid for water, will decrease. Where our system really differentiate from existing solutions, is the ability to deplete the storage tanks, ahead of a cloudburst. The storage tank will after this serve as a storage for heavy downpour. During a cloudburst, the downpour will supply more water, than the sewer system can manage leading to overflowing and floods. Using RainFlush will extend the waterflow to the sewers and hereby prevent the flood.

WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS As technology improves, we will gain the opportunity to increase the volume of rain water being used in the household. As of now, purifying rain water for cooking and drinking is possible, but not feasible at a household level. We hope to extend our system, when the technology becomes available and hereby reduce the consumption of our water reserves even further. In this way, we hope to secure a clean and consistent supply of drinking water for all future generations.

Bachelor course Project no. 131

REAR-TO-GEAR – A Self-Sufficient Automobile A. K. H. Lau HKUST, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

INTRODUCTION Transportation, as one of the major sources of air pollution, has evolved and changed throughout the years in attempts to increase its mobility while reducing its impact and contribution to air pollution. However, most of the attempts have failed immensely due to the inverse relationship of mobility and pollution reduction. This is a globalised problem, and hence, requires a globalised solution. In the following sections, you will be presented with a holistic and universal solution for the future – the Rear-To-Gear, a self-sufficient automobile.

REAR-TO-GEAR (RTG) RTG has the newest breakthrough technology in the transportation industry and energy sector. It is an ethanol powered car which can convert its emissions back into fuel, therefore creating a cycle of an almost endless supply of ethanol under ideal conditions [1].

Figure 1: Simplified Design of the Rear-to-Gear

A CO2 capturing device will be installed in the output pipe of the engine to collect carbon dioxide for the CO2–CH3OH conversion reaction in the reaction chamber. CH3OH generated will be stored in the fuel tank, while the water and electricity will be stored in the specially designed car battery and water tank respectively. A regenerative braking system will also be added into the process in order to generate electricity for the car battery when braking.

PRACTICABILITY Details of the Life Cycle Analysis, SWOT analysis and financial estimation conducted will be presented at the GRØN DYST (Green Challenge) event day.

REFERENCES [1]: Oak Ridge National Laboratory. (2016). Nano-spike catalysts convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol. Retrieved from https://www.ornl.gov/news/nano-spike-catalystsconvert-carbon-dioxide-directly-ethanol

Bachelor course Project no. 132

Recycling Dead Skin Cells and Organs Z. O. OBANIBGA Theoretical Physics with Mathematics, Lancaster University

INTRODUCTION With the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s population expected to reach 11.2 billion people by 2100 1, additional use of arable land and humus is needed to support the expanded population. Artificial fertilisers are used to combat this problem, but they can have harmful effects on the consumers of the crop, leading to conditions like methemoglobinemia. Since we are limited by the terrain on Earth, devising new ways of introducing essential nutrients into less fertile land will allay some of this pressure. The average human being sheds approximately 8lbs of skin annually. With a global population of around 7.5 billion people, that amounts to 60 billion pounds of skin shed every year. This dead skin consists of keratinocytes, cells that are comprised of a structural fibrous protein called keratin, formed at the base of the epidermis. The cells progressively move up through the various layers of skin until they reach the outer surface, where they die, forming the stratum corneum. The cells then detach themselves from the surface of the skin and end up in mattresses and around the house. Vacuums suck up these cells and the lint inside these vacuums is thrown away. Pathological waste in hospitals consisting of amputated tissues, organs and other body parts is incinerated and similarly discarded.

METHOD TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM A system can be devised to collect these materials, much like recycling plastic bottles and cardboard. The waste can be integrated into the soil much like a synthetic fertilizer. The appropriate levels of fungi, bacteria and microorganisms are already present within the soil so by manipulating already pre-existing, natural methods of decomposition, this can be done at no significant cost with lower risk of eutrophication.

CONCLUSION This will require no more effort than ordinary recycling for hospitals and homeowners, making it a perfectly feasible solution for the problem.

REFERENCES 1. UN DESA | United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (2018).

World population projected to reach 9.8 billion in 2050, and 11.2 billion in 2100 | UN DESA | United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. [online] Available at: https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/worldpopulation-prospects-2017.html [Accessed 11 May 2018].

Bachelor course Project no. 133

Removal of Phenol from Wastewater by Cyclodextrin Alginate Beads Soojung Yang, Yehlin Cho KAIST, Korea In 2016, there was a mass leakage of toxic chemical ‘phenol’ in vietnam, causing $670 million damage. Even today, underdeveloped countries are seriously suffering from chemical contamination. We developed a technology that can remove phenol from wastewater safely and cost effectively. The method is to use cyclodextrin alginate beads as molecular bowls for phenol. We used the term molecular bowls, because cyclodextrin basically picks up and carries phenol molecule. Since our product soaks up phenol, and doesn’t break down it, we don’t have to worry about producing toxic phenol debris, which was the most devastating side effect of pre existing technologies. Also, cyclodextrin alginate beads are made of edible sugars, so they are eco-friendly and easy to manipulate. Cyclodextrin is used as food additives of mayonneise, and alginate is abundant sugar from seaweed. We have crafted the prototype, and confirmed its ability to remove phenol. Then, we have developed 3 types of devices; filter, simple water purifier, and teabag type. For the filter type, we located beads in the middle of the cylinder and cycled water throughout the device. The simple water purifier type was made by attaching hollow filter membrane, activated carbon, and cyclodextrin beads layer by layer. Along with the teabag type, we measured the phenol removal efficiency for each type. Among those three, the simple water purifier showed the highest phenol removal efficiency. In addition, we have found the possibility of removing heavy metal ions, which showed efficiency about 40% in the experiment. Also, there was the possibility of recycling by steam treatment.

Bachelor course Project no. 134

Sustainable Bicycle Rack K. S. Andersen, S. M. Hansen, S. N. Kass, F. S. Klint, A. W. Rasmussen1 and F. R. Therkelsen DTU Process and Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Climate change is gradually becoming a major challenge for living conditions and urban development in cities. Particularly extreme weather conditions, such as cloudbursts, have a significant effect on our existing urban and residential areas, where the old sewers have limited rainwater drainage capacity. The partially national rainstorm on the 2. of July 2011, caused roughly 91.000 damages and cost the insurance companies a total of 4.88 billion DKK and it is estimated that over the last 25 years, the major downpours has grown 20-25 percent more in Denmark, alone.

THE IDEA BEHIND Our concept is to reuse rainwater to help relieve the sewers, water lines and the water treatment plants meanwhile being able to add a bit of beautification to towns and communities. This concept ensures that we can collect rainwater, use it for beautificating green areas in the city, and also contribute with extra parking areas for city bikes. By being able to incorporate our concept into the everyday life of the residents in the community, we are able to inflict the polluted air they are living in.

Concept With the vision of â&#x20AC;&#x153;reusable water and water drainage sustainabilityâ&#x20AC;? including the wish of creating a more lively, green and scenic inner city environment, came the idea of making an embracing bicycle rack, which will improve bicycle parking and water drainage from the surround infrastructure. The overall concept consists of a modernized bike rack with a buildin flowerbed, which is provided with the naturally falling rainwater. But what happens when it does not rain? The whole point of this sustainable concept is, that there will be a water tank collecting rainwater, which will be providing water to the flowers and the surrounding community. Furthermore we will be able to provide more than one kind of design in the future. The different kinds of designs will vary from community to community. We will for instance be able to offer benches and seating areas to affect the citizens to think and act more green and sustainable.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION By collecting the rainwater we are able to relieve the sewers and treatment plant from enormous pressure. Hereby we are also able to make the city more beautiful to look at and be in. This is a focus point, which a lot of cities wish to invest in. By being able to butificate the city and local community the people who live and move about in the areas will indirectly be affected to think more environmental and sustainable. What our concept can do is to make a small difference in the big whole. It is about thinking long-term and creating a community and mind-set in the population, as they make a difference with their small actions in their everyday life.

Bachelor course Project no. 135

Sustainable Bioenergy C. H. Arentoft and N. F. Christiansen DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Bioenergy is currently the most widely used renewable energy source in Denmark representing more than two thirds of the overall consumption of renewable energy and it plays an important role in our strategy for a green transition. Bioenergy has the potential to be carbon-neutral by balancing the amount of carbon released to the atmosphere in use of bioenergy products with an equivalent amount put into and stored in soils, animal and plant tissues through photosynthesis. However, the increasing demand of biomass will cause a substantial increase in required bioenergy crop plantings which calls for an urgent need to mitigate and determine the impacts of the land use change (LUC) from agriculture to production of bioenergy.

THE PROBLEM LUC impacts soil, water, biodiversity and climate change, and it is thus not certain whether or not bioenergy really is sustainable. The objective of this project is therefore to develop a method that can be applied when assessing which environmental influences bioenergy crops have on soil organic carbon (SOC) and the ratio between nitrogen and carbon. The mobilisation and immobilisation of SOC can be used for assessing whether perennial biomass cropping has a cooling or warming effect on the climate.

METHODS This project uses an indirect partitioning of soil respiration method to measure the total soil respiration in a perennial willow crop (PWC) plantation in Denmark. The total flux of soil respiration is quantified and divided between heterotrophic and autotrophic respiration. This is done to evaluate the budget of SOC to see if willow crops have an exposing or negative effect of the soil resources. This can be used to tell whether or not perennial biomass cropping has a cooling or warming effect on the climate.

Bachelor course Project no. 136

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality I Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION This project has been part of the course “sustainability in engineering solutions” in the three weeks period in June 2018. The course includes first and foremost an introduction to environmental assessment of products and solutions in their life cycle through the use of simple tools. On this basis methods and tools are presented for the development of environmentally improved products and solutions. These methods and tools are applied in the project work. Through the course social and management aspects of sustainability will be presented.

THE PROJECT WORK The group have been working on specific cases identified by Lyngby Tårbæk municipality as cases where finding the environmentally best solution is not straight forward. This can for example concern green logistics for the municipalities offices and potentially also shops in Lyngby, sustainable solutions for renovating a school, best options for handling organic waste, optimal heating solution for new building area, best alternatives to road salting etc.

RESULTS The projects outcomes are: a solution developed considering the three sustainability dimensions: an environmental life check of the alternative solutions, and a plan for implementation of the solution.

Bachelor course Project no. 137

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality II Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 138

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality III Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 139

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality IV Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 140

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality IX Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 141

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality V Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 142

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality VI Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 143

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality VII Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 144

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality VIII Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 145

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality X Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 146

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality XI Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 147

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality XII Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 148

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality XIII Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 149

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality XIV Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 150

Sustainable Solutions in Lyngby Tårbæk Municipality XV Authors to be determined DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Bachelor course Project no. 151

Toilet Tablets for Rapid Colorectal Cancer Diagnosis N. L. Andersen1 and M. H. Ankjær2 1

B.Sc. Biotechnology, Technical University of Denmark Molecular Biomedicine, University of Copenhagen

2 M.Sc.

INTRODUCTION In Europe, colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second most common cause of cancer-related deaths. For CRC, survival rates double if the cancer is diagnosed before metastasis. However, it requires early detection and many patients do not show symptoms before it’s too late. To combat this problem, the Danish government initiated in 2014 a screening program for all individuals between 50-74 years of age. The screening requires individuals to collect their own fecal samples to be shipped and tested for visible or non-visible blood. Patients with blood-positive results are required to undergo colonoscopy. To date, 40% of the 1.8M individuals do not participate in the screening program, resulting in a significant level of undetected cases of CRC.

THEORY AND METHODS T\Tabs are based on a detection system that utilizes the enzymatic activities of a prominent biomarker (XY) of CRC to identify the presence of cancer. Our toilet tablet solution, T\Tabs, contains a molecular probe that will give off blue, visible light in the presence of XY, thus making the toilet water turn blue, indicating the presence of CRC. As many people find the conventional screening process inconvenient, T\Tabs offer an opportunity to avoid the unpleasantness of collecting your own fecal sample and allow users to easily check for early indications of CRC at home. Furthermore, as our XY-biomarker is CRC specific, T\Tabs also minimize the occurrence of false positives and the following unnecessary, costly and unpleasant colonoscopy examinations.

Figure 1: Demonstration

CONCLUSION By replacing the current fecal sampling program and offering the tabs to the public, more CRC cases will be detected earlier, increasing the survival rate of the patients. This solution won a case competition at Welcome Trust Fund in April 2018, which has a £23.2 billion investment portfolio and we are currently initiating the development of a prototype of T\Tabs, potentially saving many lives through earlier detection and saving the health care system a significant amount of money.

Bachelor course Project no. 152

Blockchain Pilot for the Palm Oil Industry Shane Lieberman1 and Mathias Kirkegaaard2 Innovation Management, Copenhagen Business School Chain Management, Copenhagen Business School

2Supply

Introduction and problem:

Palm oil is receiving increasing attention due to the detrimental effect its cultivation has on the environment and human rights. As a result, there is a wish in the industry to promote more sustainability through increased transparency. One salient way of increasing transparency is by fostering traceability; however, due to the complexities of the palm oil value chain, this is no mean feat. An estimated 40% of the world's palm oil derives from smallholder plantations with fewer than 50 hectares, with Indonesia alone accounting for more than one million plantations with such small-scale characteristics. The resulting complexity arises from the sheer number of actors, and the fact that smallholder plantations often use a web of intermediaries to get their product downstream in the value chain. Despite the efforts of certification schemes in the industry, the European market is still pushing for better transparency of sourcing, mainly because these schemes only offer traceability of certified material, leaving the uncertified material untraced. Therefore, downstream actors in the industry impose their own traceability systems and sustainability policies to allow for the demanded transparency needed to convince stakeholders that the palm oil was grown according to a certain standard.

Solution:

Blockchain technology can potentially improve traceability for both certified and non-certified palm oil. At the same time, it can decrease transaction costs by lowering the risk of opportunism along the value chain. Such a system can be implemented through a tokenized blockchain where a digital asset is created, which follows the physical flow of goods along the value chain. Tokenization ensures traceability from plantation to potentially the retailer. The benefits of implementing such a system are the following:

   

Allows downstream actors to monitor their value chains easier and to make sure that upstream actors can be held accountable. Allows the industry to consolidate traceability efforts into one industry system, rather than duplicating efforts through self-imposed traceability systems. Palm oil mills will experience increased extraction rates from the palm fruit through time-stamps of transactions between plantation and agent. Allow plantations to become connected to international markets thereby allowing downstream actors to support more sustainable practices.

We propose a pilot project consisting of three plantations, one agent, one mill, one refinery and one retailer. Over the course of our research, we garnered interest from Deloitte, Golden Agri Resources (GAR), GeoTrace and the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO). In the context of this proposal, Deloitte has the in-house technical capabilities to code a blockchain and has expressed an interest in creating a use case for the palm oil industry. GAR repeatedly expressed a desire to enhance their current traceability system and proposed an in-depth plantation tour to strengthen our assumptions further. To set the rules of the blockchain, we rely on the code of conduct instigated by the RSPO to give the blockchain credibility regarding sustainability. For the first-hand experience, we can turn to GeoTrace who can consult us concerning on-the-ground challenges. The blockchain application relies on plantation owners to insert data onto the blockchain using text message on their mobile phones, GeoTrace already works extensively with plantations for traceability and expressed an interest in piloting a substantiated blockchain system. Therefore, the logistical practicalities of this can be further tested with their expertise.

Conclusion:

In sum, we propose to provide a service which can benefit most actors across the palm oil value chain. In effect, over the course of our nine-month research endeavor, many players expressed interest in a blockchain application, albeit for company-specific use. We believe that the real benefits are derived from network effects on the blockchain, which can allow for industry-wide traceability and ultimately connectivity to the uncertified plantations which make up 80% of the industry. To test this assumption, the technical feasibility must be validated. If we can prove that a digital asset can adequately follow the physical asset along the palm oil value chain in a pilot, we can effectively substantiate the value of blockchain for supply chain traceability.

Abstracts Bachelor final

Bachelor final Project no. 201

Biodegradation of Plasticizers by Marine Bacteria L. Roager DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Plasticizers are widely used in the plastics industry to add certain desired characteristics to plastic such as softness, durability and flexibility. Unfortunately, some of them are toxic to humans and other forms of life. They have disruptive effects on the endocrine system, which results in reduced fertility, altered behavior in marine organisms and even changes in the brain. Furthermore, plasticizers have been linked to diabetes type 2, obesity and cancer. It is evident that these chemical additives are very harmful to the environment they are in, and the marine environment is at particular risk since this is where most effluents containing plasticizers terminate. In relation to this, humans are at even greater risk when eating seafood affected by plasticizers. Possible bioremediation strategies for removal of these pollutants from the oceans include biodegradation by marine bacteria. However, only a few marine bacteria capable of biodegradation of plasticizers have been isolated.

APPROACH My project presents an approach to identify marine bacteria with biodegradation abilities towards plasticizers. From known research, I collected the few gene sequences known to be involved in plasticizer degradation in other bacteria. Via bioinformatic tools, these sequences were compared to the gene sequence data from bacteria collected on the Galathea 3 expedition, where marine bacteria were collected from all around the globe. This yielded seven interesting marine bacteria to work with in order to find a bacterium that can be used for biodegradation of plasticizers in the environment.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Through the bioinformatic screening conducted, I found that especially one bacterium; Ruegeria mobilis NBRC102038 showed great potential for biodegradation of plasticizers genomically and should be examined further in future studies. Furthermore, three strains belonging to one family of bacteria; Rhodobacteraceae, were found to have genomic potential of biodegrading plasticizers, which aligns with previous research, making this family of particular interest for bioremediation strategies. In the future, marine bacteria that can biodegrade plasticizers can be used to clean up these pollutants from the oceans. This requires more research into R. mobilis and the Rhodobacteraceae family to reveal if they are suitable for bioremediation of plasticizers directly in the oceans or if for instance the enzymes should be purified and applied.

Bachelor final Project no. 202

Clean and Affordable Energy - by Hydrogen and Fuel Cells M. F. Hansen DTU Physics and Nanotechnology, Technical University of Denmark

WE ALL WANT CLEAN ENERGY But transitioning our society from relying on fossil fuels to green energy has proven hard and costly. Change is needed and if the green option becomes the cheap option it will happen fast. A big hindering for clean energy technologies such as solar cells and wind mills to succeed is the lack of efficient and inexpensive storage possibilities. The growing interest in storing energy in the form of hydrogen is due to fuel cells that converts hydrogen-based fuels to electricity incredibly efficiently and with minimal emission! These however are costly to produce and still face challenges.

FUEL CELLS HOLD THE POTENTIAL To accelerate the green transition. By their chemical working principles todays fuel cells can reach efficiencies as high as 90%! “Fuel cells are an energy user's dream: an efficient, combustion-less, virtually pollution-free power source…” – U.S. Department of Energy They are applicable due to their fuel flexibility to hydrogen as a fuel in many forms e.g. methane or biofuels, which can be transported as easily as todays fuels. But the materials used to produce the currently developed and reliable fuel cells are not cheap and cost is key for technologies to succeed.

NANOTECHNOLOGY PAVES THE WAY For cheaper materials to be used in fuel cells. By coating materials with different elements and analyzing their behavior fuel cells are optimized, made more reliable and cheaper. The majority of a stack of fuel cells today consist of expensive steel that can withstand the rough conditions during operation. By coating cheap steels with proper elements that enhances corrosion resistance, conductivity and reactivity they become applicable for fuel cells. This could bring the fuel cell closer to large scale production and application.

Fuel cells are already Developed and applied in prototype cars and for local power generation, so making them affordable is the natural step towards broadscale usage. Right here at DTU the Institute of Energy is at the forefront of fuel cell research. Fuel cells hold enormous potential for us to transition into a greener society if we succeed in making them economically competitive and research into coatings can make this possible.

Bachelor final Project no. 203

Containers for a Circular Wholesale System C. B. MĂ¸ller, S. F. Schack, and A. A. Toftegaard DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Disposable packaging is a convenient way to package dried goods in supermarkets, but might not be the most responsible way of consumption, as resources leave the value chain Due to a pending patent application, the project will only be presented at the conference after a short amount of time. Circular economy can provide a new perspective on the packaging of dried goods, as it focuses on keeping resources valuable for longer. One way to prolong the value of packaging resources is to implement a system where the packaging for dried goods is reusable in a wholesale system. This kind of system already exists both in Denmark and abroad. A reusable container will slow resource loops by prolonging the lifetime of the packaging. Furthermore, the container can contribute to closing resource loops, if it is made from recyclable materials. Existing reusable container solutions can be difficult to transport to and from the retailer for consumers, as they are often heavy (especially if they are made of glass) and have a large volume. The heavy and large containers are inconvenient to carry around and therefore require planning when grocery shopping. To make a wholesale system for dried goods an attractive alternative to disposable packaging, the reusable containers must be convenient to carry around.

Figure 1: Illustration

The Convenient Container is produced in the lightweight plastic materials LDPE and HDPE. It is designed with a rigid top and bottom and a flexible middle part, which is collapsible to adapt the volume of the container to the volume of the content. This makes the container easy to transport and requires less planning, as the container is so small and light that it can be stored permanently in a bag or in the car. The container has a separate lid, which can be opened and closed via a thread, which provides a close seal. The inner part of the lid can be attached to the dried goods stands in the store using the thread, ensuring a quick and intuitive way to connect the two. To provide a convenient storage solution at home, the containers are designed to be stacked. The container can be easily disassembled, which enables the consumer to replace the flexible middle part of the container if it breaks. Easy disassembly is also an advantage when recycling the container, as all parts can be separated into the correct fractions. The price of the container can be kept to a minimum using the widely available materials HDPE and LDPE. Furthermore, the container can be effectively manufactured by using blow film extrusion for the flexible middle part made of LDPE and injection molding for the rigid HDPE parts. Further development will be focused on the implementation of a wholesale system in supermarkets, potentially with an intelligent interface system.

Bachelor final Project no. 204

Design and Optimization of Hybrid Solar-Biomass Systems for Combined Heat and Power Generation Andreas Helk DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Hybridization of biomass and solar is becoming an increasingly interesting technology to look at when designing a renewable system for power and/or heat generation. This is due to its potential in providing a dispatchable base-load energy demand. With an increasing political pressure in many countries to lower their carbon emissions, this technology could be implemented as part of the energy portfolio. Denmark in particular has set up a goal of being completely independent from fossil fuels by 2050. Hybridization of biomass and solar expands the area where it is possible to benefit from large scale solar plants. This can be seen by the technology allowing a northern European country such as Denmark, to use this technology for district heating systems. In a country where 64% of all households are connected to the district heating system this technology can have a big impact. However, the technology is still being researched and developed, which makes it a hot topic in the Danish energy debate.

PROBLEM STATEMENT All of the above is what provides the motivation for this project, where the goal is to help further the development in this field. The benchmark of the project is a district heating plant in Marstal Denmark. The district heating plant in Marstal was built in stages and might not be running at optimal conditions. Therefore, it is of interest to determine the optimal size and type of the different components, the main components of interest being the solar field and the storage systems. This leads to the following problem statement: What is the optimal design and layout of a hybrid solar-biomass system for combined heat and power generation in Denmark?

METHODS To ensure that the problem statement is answered a set of tasks and methods is created. First a dynamic model of the system is developed and validated in TRNSYS. Next follows an optimization of the solar fields and storage systems along with an evaluation of which auxiliary heating components are needed. Finally, a techno-economic analysis will be carried out, where after it is possible to evaluate and rate different designs. This will be done on the basis of the capital investment cost and the internal rate of return.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION At this point in time only preliminary optimization results have been found with a validated model. A methodology to determine the solar field size and the size of the storage systems in order to meet a given heating demand has been made. Once the techno-economic analysis has been made, different combinations of district heating plants will be compared and rated.

Bachelor final Project no. 205

From Waste to Food: Creating Single Cell Protein from Source Separated Urine A. F. Kjeldgaard, M. Skadborg, and A. A. Zachariae DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION There has been a significant increase in food production and demand across the world over the past half century, which is expected to increase until at least 2050. Furthermore, there are an estimated 2 billion people around the world, living predominantly on a meat-based diet. The consumption of meat products is resource intensive, large areas of arable land and nutrients are required for the livestock and particularly in growing protein used as feed (i.e. soybean protein). Animals and humans alike are however far from efficient at uptaking essential nutrients. 20 Mt of the nitrogen nutrients from agriculture ultimately end up in wastewater annually, where they are removed. This amount corresponds to 20 % of the annual production of nitrogen nutrients in fertilizer.

RECOVERY The nutrients are largely located in the urine portion of the wastewater. Even though the urine constitute only 1% of wastewater, it contains around 50-80% of essential agricultural nutrients present in wastewater. Recovery of these nutrients presents an immense opportunity to optimize the meat production industry and avoid losses of key nutrients. Although animals are inefficient in processing feed to food, bacteria are highly efficient in converting nutrients to high quality protein. Growing methane oxidizing bacteria present an opportunity to recover nutrients in the waste flow to produce Single Cell Protein(SCP), as a protein rich ingredient for animal feed. This method shows potential as an alternative production method with a low water and land use and high yields compared to traditional feed production. Although the method is new, multiple businesses have already started producing SCP from natural gas and synthetic media.

ONGOING This project has and continually studies the use of methanotrophic bacteria for the production of single cell protein from synthetic urine. Growing bacteria with protein content of above 50 %, and comparable amino acid distribution to that of fishmeal in synthetic utrine media. Currently, experiments are being run in a continuous reactor setup with different loadings of oxygen, methane, ammonium, and copper, to investigate how different feeding strategies impact the yields and nutritional quality of produced biomass. Content and quality of protein, lipids, and carbohydrates will be measured, as well as the copper content of the cells and potentially production of polymers (PHA).

Bachelor final Project no. 206

Green Extraction of Amino Acids and Polyphenols Using Environmental-Friendly Ethyl Lactate L. Canal, J. Hegarty, E. Parsons Engineering Department, Faculty of Science and Technology, Lancaster University

INTRODUCTION AND MOTIVATION With wealth increasing around the globe, due to the rapid economic growth of many countries, demand for advanced health cares and better nutrients is predicted to increase, putting under stress the chemicals industry (supplying products such as basic nutrients, integrators and drugs) whilst costs containment, scarcity of resources and environmental impacts are bounding factors to production as it has been known so far. There is then a compelling need to address the above challenges by shifting chemicals production towards more economically and environmentally sustainable methods. For amino acids and polyphenols, which are the products experiencing highest demands after alcohols, fermentation is a production technique with huge potential (and the only one available in many cases) due to low energy inputs and high yield, however extraction of chemicals from fermentation broths is either achieved using expensive and toxic, polluting chemicals or has low yield. PROPOSED SOLUTION Our idea is to implement the production of highly demanded, organic chemicals obtained from fermentation on a large scale using high yield green alternatives; Current solvents are often generally expensive or are not safe for human consumption. Our research has already identified an alternative to conventional solvents for extraction of L-amino acids (Tyrosine, Tryptophan, Phenylalanine) and Polyphenols (Caffeic, Ferulic and Gallic acids) from aqueous solution using Ethyl Lactate. There is the potential for expansion into the extraction of other high value biomolecules depending upon the previous successes. Ethyl Lactate is a solvent largely produced across the globe, characterized by a low impact on the environment at both the production end, as it is produced by esterification of lactic acid and ethanol, and disposal, thanks to its low toxicity and eco compatibility. Moreover, in recent years Ethyl Lactate has been produced with high yield from agricultural wastes, increasing its green solvent profile. METHODS AND RESULTS Partitioning of amino acids in aqueous solutions is obtained by creating biphasic systems. An ionic salt (either K3PO4 or K2HPO4 or K2CO3) and Ethyl Lactate is added to water containing the biomolecule and left to settle at different temperatures in a warm water bath. Top and bottom phases, respectively Ethyl Lactate and Salt rich, were extracted and partitioning coefficients measured. Currently the best extraction is for tryptophan using K2HPO4; the partition coefficient was found to reach values of 5.34 at 298.2K and 0.1MPa.

Bachelor final Project no. 207

Grow Technology – a New Manufacturing Method M. Ørting and C.Thomsen DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION To ensure a responsible production in the future, it is worth exploring new manufacturing methods for the creation of the products of tomorrow. This project is based on the idea of utilizing natural materials to grow and obtain certain geometries and make use of this in a new manufacturing method - Grow technology. It is ideally possible to grow the products of tomorrow by using this manufacturing method. With this there is a potential for a great change in future product’s environmental burden since this could be a greener alternative to traditional manufacturing methods.

METHODS By firstly exploring the world of natural growing materials and possible applications of the manufacturing method, the concept of growing a chair out of bamboo has been chosen for further development. The concept - as sketched out in Figure 1 - is based on the hypothesis that it is possible to manipulate bamboo by physical constraints in its growth stage to achieve the shape of a chair.

Figure 1: Concept sketch of a growth-mold fixated on a bamboo sprout to grow a chair.

By experimental work with different iterations of growth-molds on new bamboo sprouts the possibilities and limitations of the concepts has been explored.

RESULTS The manipulation of bamboo shows great potential and for the future design work of growing a chair out of bamboo the following challenges have been discovered in the experimental work so far:  The fixation of the growth-mold on new sprouts because the sprouts shoot with great force.  No sharp corners in chair design – always a little bend radius for better guidance.  Growth-mold needs to allow air circulation to avoid moisture build-up.  Initial direction of sprouts and bamboo foliage needs to be taken into consideration in design of growth-mold.  Reusability of growth-mold for sustainable mass production. By further exploration of the possibilities of manipulation of bamboo the manufacturing method can be transferred into a wide variety of product applications.

Bachelor final Project no. 208

Implementing Circular Economy in the Biotech Industry N. Friberg Klysner, A. Heidtmann DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

THE PROBLEM The use of disposable plastic has enabled the biotech industry to increase in effectiveness rapidly. Though, it also has its downsides. It is estimated, that 5.5 million tonnes of disposable plastic is used in laboratories every single year [Andersson, 2017].

METHODS In collaboration with the Norwegian biotech company BioBank, the goal of this project has been to implement circular economy in the biotech industry. The material flow through BioBank was investigated over a two-week test period. The resulting Material Flow Analysis was utilized to gain insights into which areas have the most potential for improvement.

RESULT It was found that 60% of the plastic from using pipette tips comes from the packaging of the tips. This is equivalent to 25% of BioBankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s total plastic consumption. The company consumes more than 60 kg of plastic per week, despite having only 7 employees.

THE CONCEPT The concept aims to eliminate the disposable boxes which the tips are sold in. The concept is a machine, which dispenses tips in the standard 96 format into reusable boxes. The tips are bought in single stacks, with only minimal packaging. The machine is loaded with the tips, and is then ready to dispense. This concept is one of the solutions created during the project, and can be seen as a contribution to the vision of circular economy.

Figure 1: Illustration of the tip dispenser concept

SAVINGS Based on the analysis of the consumption at BioBank, the dispenser has potential to save approximately 800 kg of plastic every year in BioBank alone.

REFERENCES Andersson, L. (2017). Environmental Stewardship: The scientistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role in laboratory sustainability efforts, Lab Manager, 12(3), 24.-25.

Bachelor final Project no. 209

Multi-Story Gardens for High-Density Communities A. Gacad Faculty of Land and Food Systems, University of British Columbia

INTRODUCTION High-density communities often lack agricultural space to produce crops. This is coupled with the increasing demand for fresh, local, produce, placing stress on nearby rural farms. With a growing population moving towards urbanization, investment in urban agriculture is imperative. Current agricultural practices are unsustainable and are a leading contributor to greenhouse gas emissions (Tubiello et al., 2012). The additional challenge of feeding 9 billion people by 2050 highlights the imminent need to invest in solutions which empower the population to be active proponents within the food system.

CONCEPT Multi-story gardens have potential to maximize limited space. This design is composed of a central structure with capacity to fit individual modular components on each tier. This would ideally be made of wood, sourced from materials typically destined from the landfill, such as wood pallets. The wood would be lined with a waterproof material to prevent rotting.

Figure 1: Demonstration

In areas which lack consistent access to fresh water, grey water is a similarly effective candidate. The type of produce grown on each tier varies according to the needs of the plant family â&#x20AC;&#x201C; heavier families on the bottom, leafy families on the second tier and families with small surface area to volume ratio on the top tier.

IMPACT The potential for this to exist in displaced communities, such as protracted refugee camps, is highly feasible. Investing in such structures with culturally appropriate crops give a sense of integrity for many refugees with backgrounds in agriculture. The next step is to further refine the design for a more robust structure that is feasible to build.

REFERENCES Tubiello, F. N., Salvatore, M., Rossi, S., Ferrara, A., Fitton, N., & Smith, P. (2013). The FAOSTAT database of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture. Environmental Research Letters, 8(1), 015009. doi:10.1088/1748-9326/8/1/015009

Bachelor final Project no. 210

Mycelium Surfboards D. S. Jensen, K. U. Kristensen and L. K. Sudergaard DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION The international surf community has moved in a more environmentally friendly direction in the last decades. Surfers have become more aware of external environmental threats to the ocean and their search for the perfect wave. Surf organizations such as Surfrider Foundation, Sustainable Coastline Hawaii and Save The Waves are volunteer-run communities, who fight daily to keep the oceans clean, beaches natural and to maintain accessible and plastic-free coastlines. While the surfing community pays keen attention to the coastal environment and the challenges of global climate change, surfing often necessitates the use of products which are not environmentally friendly. The surfboard itself is often the biggest culprit. An estimated 750,000 surfboards are manufactured each year. The extraction of raw materials as well as the necessary transport and disposal contribute to a significant carbon footprint. Furthermore, the manufacturing process can be harmful to workers who shape, and varnish surfboards as modern surfboards are often made from materials such as styrene, VOC and isocyanates.

THEORY AND METHODS Our intentions are simple. We wish to change the physical composition of surfboards, so they embody the vision of sustainability through the use of mycelium, the subterranean root system of fungi. The subterranean root system of fungi forms a complex system that binds carbon and breaks down dead organic matter. We see great potential in using this technology to create composite materials from carbon-based waste.

Figure 1: Demonstration

RESULTS Our mycelium surfboard is 100% biodegradable. It consists solely of natural materials bound together by biological processes. Together with the right combination of soil, water and microorganisms the surfboard can be completely decomposed in just three to six months and contains neither styrene, VOC nor isocyanates.

Bachelor final Project no. 211

Smart Office A Voice-Controlled Workplace for Everyone Z. Y. CHAN, and P. SHUM School of Electrical & Electronics Engineering, Nanyang Technological University

INTRODUCTION Home Automation System (HAS) has been one of the most important topics in the past decades. The total number of smart homes in the North America and EU28+2 countries are expected to reach 65 million by 2019. By integrating technologies into homes, HAS provides solutions for controlling, monitoring and automating functions for homes using smartphone applications or websites. It can be further categorized into six groups: energy management and climate control systems; security and access control systems; lighting, window and appliance control systems; home appliances; audio-visual and entertainment systems; and healthcare and assisted living systems.

RESEARCH GAP Some researchers have implemented micro-controller based HAS user interface on smartphone applications. It is convenient as users are only required to download the application once. It is also easy to operate and does not consume much memory space. However, a drawback of this design is that users will need to familiarize themselves with application. Some users may face difficulties in operating the application especially for those complex and complicated systems. Some other researchers have also implemented their HAS user interface on responsive websites. A drawback of such design is that users may be required to remember the URL or the server IP address to access the smart home systems. It could even more inefficient if users are required to login with their credentials. Aqeel-ur-Rehman and his colleagues suggested these smart home interface which based on applications and websites could be inconvenience especially for the elderly and disabled people, and they only target a specific group of people â&#x20AC;&#x201C; those who are more familiar with the technologies and who can operate it.

THE SOLUTION The main contribution of this project is proposal, development and implementation of a voice-controlled smart home system using Raspberry Pi and Amazon Voice Service. This proposed implementation is inexpensive and inclusive for everyone as users are only required to provide voice commands. This system comprises seven main features: 1) Control of electrical appliances; 2) Entertainment system; 3) Digital memo; 4) Face recognition control; 5) Surveillance; 6) Room occupancy detection; 7) Voice-controlled messaging.

Bachelor final Project no. 212

Team CASA J. C. Frens1, J. S. van Hulst2, and S. van Wieringen1 1TU/e

2TU/e

Industrial Design, Eindhoven University of Technology Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology

THE TEAM Team CASA comprises of eighteen motivated TU/e bachelor and master students from over seven different faculties working on the transition to sustainable living. Our mission is to accelerate the energy transition by bringing together partners from the academic and business world to integrate and innovate in the construction environment. We will set a new, higher standard for all homes regarding Comfort, Affordability and Sustainability that can be achieved with technologies available today: an Alternative for housing.

THE PROJECT This first CASA is the kick-start of Brainport Smart District Brandevoort in the Netherlands. The house has a central service core, this core not only provides accessible room for the systems and installations, but is also constructive. This makes our wall units demountable and modular. Demolition costs become residual value while all materials can be recycled and leaves inhabitants free to renovate or design the house to fit their needs. The foundation of the building is simultaneously a seasonal thermal energy storage, which stores the heat gathered using thin-film Building Integrated PVT. Next to this, we create a healthy indoor climate using ventilation with heat-recovery. Grid efficiency losses are prevented by using DC wherever possible. To ensure these systems are affordable and scalable, an innovative approach to the building process is key. By embracing SlimBouwenÂŽ, we bring flexibility, reduction of volume, efficiency and sustainability to the building process. The homes will be designed as turn-key prefab to reduce building costs, creating financial room for sustainable technologies. The house at Brainport Smart District can provide us, our partners, and the building market with many new insights after it is build. We can use it to optimize and evaluate the technologies and systems within the home. This new knowledge can be used to improve the design of our next projects. For instance, building a living lab on the TU/e campus or scalability to a full district of social housing.

THE ENERGY TRANSITION The existing building market is slow to adopt innovations, while the impact of the building market is responsible for 36% of CO2 emissions in Europe (BPIE, 2011). The timeconsuming conventional methods rely on bricks and concrete with a large embodied energy, both due to transport and the inherently energy-intensive production methods. Meanwhile, this makes inherently inflexible buildings that can only be demolished at the end of their lifetime. Our design incorporates a steel frame with modular wall/floor/roof units. Allowing precision-manufacturing. This reduces construction errors and man-hours, with significant savings: up to 25% compared to traditional methods (Lichtenberg, 2005).

REFERENCES -

BPIE. (2011). Europe's Buildings under the Microscope. October. Lichtenberg, J. (2005). Slimbouwen. Eindhoven. Zulkepli et al. (2016). Analysis on the Performance of Copper Indium Gallium Selenide (CIGS) Based Photovoltaic Thermal. EDP Sciences

Bachelor final Project no. 213

Visualizing Environmental Impact of Electric Vehicles T. Poulsen DTU Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION A new technology called V2G charging allows you not only to charge your electric vehicle, but also to discharge it. In other words, the technology makes it possible to let an electric vehicle deliver electric power back into your household power plug, and thereby back into the power system. Why would you ever charge your electric vehicle, just to discharge it through the power system? Simply because charging and discharging many electric vehicles at the right moments can help stabilize the power system, which allows more renewable power sources to be implemented. The goal of this project is to create a device, that visualises when an electric vehicle is charging and discharging through the power system. In addition, the environmental impact of the power used for charging is visualised simultaneously. All to help the user of the electric vehicle to understand the environmental impact of the charging, and the fact that charging and discharging an electric vehicle can help to reduce CO2 emissions.

THE SOLUTION The device for visualization is designed to be mounted directly of the charging cable used to charge an electric vehicle. Figure 1 illustrates a sketch of the device, which consists of two cases, each equipped with a display, and this project delivers a prototype of this device. The cases are mounted to the charging cable using standard cable ties. The small squares arranged in a butterfly shape in Figure 1 are all LED units that altogether make up a display, capable of visualizing whether the electric vehicle is charging or discharging. The environmental impact is indicated by the color shown on the display, and the actual impact is calculated based on data gathered wirelessly from the website www.electricitymap.org.

Figure 1: A sketch illustrating the design of the device for visualization.

Abstracts Master course

Master course Project no. 301

MycoMaterials 1

N. Jensen , J. Jensen , L. H. Wandall 1

DTU Physics and Nanotachnology, Technical University of Denmark 2 DTU General Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Materials used in the fabrication of goods or in construction are most often nonbiodegradable or slow to renew. For example, plastics are typically not biodegradable and materials like wood take many years to renew. Wood, in particular, is important in the building and furniture industry but is not sustainable, hard to recycle for other purposes, and is typically burned or composted. Ikea, the world’s largest consumer of wood, is responsible for 1% of the global consumption. In our project, MycoMaterials, we propose new methods for recycling wood materials like those found in Ikea furniture. “Wood that has been pressure treated, varnished or otherwise finished is not a good candidate for recycling...the main uses for recycled wood are compost and garden amendments like mulch ” By genetically modifying fungi, we strive to change the mechanical properties of fungal mycelia, the “root” of the fungi, grown on waste wood particles. Using synthetic biology, we are able to change the material properties of fungal mycelia to make them more similar to wood or plastics. The fungi can consume hemp straw in addition to sawdust. In this way, materials made from fungal mycelia could rapidly become a sustainable substitute to less biodegradable or more slowly renewable resources.

Master course Project no. 302

A Techno-Economic Evaluation of Treatment of Brewery Wastewater by Symbiosis of Algae and Bacteria M. Bodenhoff, M. Lysdahlgaard Pedersen¹, T. Zhang¹, J. Wang² ¹Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, Beijing, China ²Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

BACKGROUND 3

More than 220 million m brewery wastewater comes from the production of beer in China per year. The treatment of brewery wastewater can be done by conventional cleaning methods, including a complicated mixture of aerobic an anaerobic cleaning, or it can be used as a feedstock to produce algae, which can then be used as feedstock for bio-fuel. The quality of brewery wastewater varies greatly, organic contaminants such as carbohydrates, amino acids and proteins, and inorganic contaminants such as potassium, calcium and magnesium silicates. Phosphates are considered as high-concentration organic wastewater. The wastewater is non-toxic. However, direct discharge can result in heavy pollution of river and groundwater. It has been researched that the wastewater has good biodegradability (BOD5/COD>0.3), which can be used as a good microbial medium for resource utilization. Then we propose to use the brewery wastewater to grow algae. The wastewater contains nutrients and Volatiles Organic Components, which are desired growth materials.

OBJECTIVE The objective of this report is to do a techno-economic evaluation between conventional brewery waste water treatment, where they use an aerobic-, anaerobic-system, and this new method where algae are used to clean the brewery waste water. To analysis the sizing issues related with this method and the amount of brewery waste water. Conclude if it would make sense to use this new waste water treatment, from an economic perspective.

METHODOLOGY The feasibility of algae-based waste water treatment in a plant producing 15,000 liter beer per day is evaluated from economic, environmental, and sustainable aspects. The capital and operation costs of our solution are compared to the conventional, wastewater treatment method. And compared with conventional methods, removal of COD, ammonium, nitrate, and phosphorus from the wastewater will be displayed to see how green this process is in environmental aspect.

EXPECTED RESULTS It has been found that brewery waste water can be cleaned by the use of algae and thereby produce a biomass in the process. Due to operating conditions and low energy requirements for algae production, it is expected to have lower operating cost compared with a conventional waste water treatment. Although the fixed capital cost for the new method may be higher than the conventional, due to the equipment and plant size, it is expected that the overall economy will show that this new method is feasible.

Master course Project no. 303

Apico - Utilizing Data from Agricultural Processes I. A. Kristiansen, T. M. Larsson, S. U. Maurset NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

PROBLEM The world faces huge challenges related to climate changes, resource waste, and increased food production for a rapidly growing population. Digitalization of the agricultural industry has become essential in solving the challenges. Massive amounts of data have to be analysed and utilized to be able to increase and improve food production, and as of today, the process is barely in the beginning. Retrieving this data is not possible as of today, because there is no common standard of communication between the machines in use. Devices from different vendors have to be encoded into a common communication protocol, often OPCUA, to be able to communicate with each other and into a common digital system.

SOLUTION Apico is a middleware and software solution aiming to make the data from agricultural processes easily accessible. The middleware “quasar framework” automatically generates a skeleton code for translation into OPC-UA, and hence reduces lines of code written by 90 % compared to manually coding. Apico delivers a full solution including both quasar framework and analytics of the data retrieved from machines and sensors on farms. The co-operators in agriculture will be provided with the data access and analysis, to be able to use the data to optimize e.g. breeding, crops and milk production. It enables them to make better decisions for management and planning of agricultural processes. Both co-operators and farmers increase their production and reduce their costs.

CLIMATE IMPACT The Norwegian breeding company Geno estimates that full retrieval of data from cows will increase breeding efficiency by 80 %, and thus they can breed for cows with lower methane emissions. They estimate milk production can be increased by 2 %, which has an added value of €15 M annually. Increased crops due to digitalization will have an added value of €8 M annually. Complete data retrieval and information about the agricultural processes leads to optimal usage of resources and fertilizers, reduced usage of pesticides and antibiotics, and an overall decreased footprint from agriculture.

TECHNOLOGY STATUS The quasar framework is developed at CERN research centre in Geneva, Switzerland, where it is used in the control room of the Large Hadron Collider. An MVP for the analysis module will be made in cooperation with a beehive company during summer 2018. The team is in contact with potential customers and partners within the co-operators in Norway, and the solution will be developed in cooperation with these companies.

Master course Project no. 304

Biomass-Based Intumescent Coatings 1,2

1,2

K. Chen , P. Ren , Z. Li , Z. Wang , Y. Yang 2 2 Supervisors: H. Wu , Y. Zeng

1,2

Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, #380 Huaibeizhuang, Huairou District, Beijing, 101400, China 2 Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Søltofts Plads, Building 229, DK-2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

BACKGROUND Intumescent coating is a fire protection material which consists of acid source, carbon source, and blowing agent. One application of intumescent coating is building surface painting. When exposed to high temperature, it can expand to a porous char layer which isolates heat and oxygen and thereby holds off the building from collapsing. The conventional carbon source of intumescent coatings is pentaerythritol, which is neither renewable nor environmentally friendly. Biomass, which is rich in the content of -OH group, is a potential carbon source of intumescent coating.

OBJECTIVES Environmentally friendly intumescent coating is expected to be synthesized with biomass as carbon source, which is a low-cost option when biomass waste is the candidate. Meanwhile, it provides an alternative of treating biomass waste. Thermogravimetric analysis and fireresistance tests are expected to evaluate the feasibility of this thought.

METHODOLOGY Coating Synthesis Biomass, including coffee grounds, tea leaves, wheat straw and biomass waste slurry will be used for coating synthesis, respectively. The biomass is milled in a knife mill, then the milled biomass particles and other typical ingredients of intumescent coatings are mixed in a disperser. Once it mixed well, the mixture is applied to a steel plate with the dimension of 60 ⅹ60ⅹ3 mm, followed by curing for 24 h at room temperature.

Performance Evaluation Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) is conducted for evaluating the thermal decomposition of these coatings, using a Netzsch Jupiter F1 STA. The temperature range for the tests is from 50 to 1000 ℃, with a heating rate of 10 ℃/min under atmosphere. A lab-scale oven is used for fire testing by applying the coatings on a steel plate. The temperature of the backside of the plate is measured by a type K thermocouple.

EXPECTED RESULTS The experiments are in progress, we expect that fire testing will demonstrate the fireresistance performance of the intumescent coatings with biomass as char former. The addition of biomass in the coating may reduce the temperature of the substrate by lowering the thermal conductivity of the intumescent chars. Additionally, we expect to see the presence of pores in the char layer, and expansion of the coating thickness after fire testing.

Master course Project no. 305

The Sustainability Calculator J. Sørensen and T. Elmelund DTU Physics, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION The world faces a huge challenge in minimizing the emission of greenhouse gasses. Both politically and industrially great initiatives are being undertaken to implement renewable energy technologies on a large scale, improve greener production of various goods, etc. However, a large contributor to the emission of greenhouse gasses is on a personal level, where consumer behavior plays a significant role.

CONCEPT This project aims at creating a “sustainability calculator” which utilizes the daily consumption of a consumer to present a monetarized value of their sustainability profile. This value can be thought of as a “sustainability fee” which is an estimate of what it would cost for a consumer to balance out their emission. The sustainability profile is presented in such a way that the consumer explicitly knows what choices have the largest impact on their environmental footprint. From the profile, it is evident that the emission is not a fixed number but rather an interval, which is necessary to clarify as there is a significant/ uncertainty related to these calculations. The calculator has been developed and tested in collaboration with Grøn Fremtid and their associated test families, to enable the families to efficiently lower their emissions through the duration of the test period.

FUTURE PROSPECT

€ 415,00 ; 44%

Food

€ 366,35 ; 39%

€ 37,39 € 88,46 ; 4% ; 9% Travel Home Lifestyle

Total yearly price [EUR]

€ 36,48 ; 4%

1000

800

6 400

200 0

Jointed

600

Tons CO2

The future prospect of this project is to turn this calculator into a website where the consumer can see their personal environmental footprint, while creating a profile allows the consumer to constantly track their improvements. It is believed that this website could potentially be a very powerful tool for the everyday user to change their consumer behavior and improve their sustainability profile.

2 Nov. Feb. Mar. Price

Apr.

CO2

Figure 1: Yearly consumption profile per person in Figure 2: Test families’ monthly progression per household. person in household.

Master course Project no. 306

CheeseItYourself: Revaluation of a Food By-Product with a Minimum Footprint I. Anagnostara, P. Dima, H. Gรณmez and C. Masiรก DTU Process and Innovation, Technical University of Denmark

CHALLENGE 4473 and 196418 tons of aquafaba, a by-product that is generated every time chickpeas are consumed, are wasted in Denmark and Germany each year, respectively. From these quantities, around 44 and 1964 tons are proteins, which constitute one of the biggest future demands regarding food. Furthermore, 152 million tonnes of CO2 are produced annually by the food industry just in England, of which food storage, manufacturing, transport, washing, cooking and specially Dairy production add up to 45% of it.

SOLUTION

CheeseItYourself aims to reduce these enormous wasted food quantities with a particular approach. The project wants to make consumers conscious of the easiness of reusing food by-products, giving them all the keys to do it from their home. CheeseItYourself wants everyone to play a leading role in food waste reduction. The proposed solution is CheeseIt!, a powder-form ingredients mix containing all the key components to revaluate aquafaba and turn it into a homemade vegan cheese. It offers an more nutritious alternative to already commercialized vegan cheeses and its versatility allows the consumer to adapt it to their own taste by adding different seasonings to their own recipe. Regarding its production process, the strongest sustainable aspect of CheeseIt! production is that the main unit operations needed do not require high or low temperature. Hence, the energetic requirement will be enormously minimized, as well as for the storage conditions. CheeseIt! has a powder format and does not require a specific storage temperature, only a dry atmosphere. In terms of transportation, the cost will be extremely reduced given that large amounts of weight in water will not be transported as it would happen in the case of a different product format. For this reason, CheeseIt! production will have a low environmental impact, generating low CO2 emissions and reporting a low carbon footprint.

With CheeseIt!, everyone is able to directly contributing the fight against food waste, revaluating aquafaba at their own kitchen.

Master course Project no. 307

Combined Cooling, Heating and Power: Using Waste Gasification for a Tri-Generation Plant in a Hospital V. Amato, A. Buffet, B. L. Oyarzabal, L. Pardini, A. Pasquali Technical University of Denmark, Department of Mechanical Engineering

PROBLEM

Waste management is among the most pressing issues in environmental protection. The EU 28-member states produce around 242 million tons of waste every year, of which nearly 210 million come from the EU 15; Spain, France and Italy are the top three countries that dispose waste in landfill sites. Therefore, there is still a huge improvement to be done by some Mediterranean countries of the EU. Electricity production is also a big concern these days. This production is becoming more environmentally friendly in some European countries. In Denmark 44% of the electricity production came from wind energy in 2017. Nevertheless, this is not a truthful picture of the current situation in the world. In 2014, 22,430 TWh were produced and less than 24% came from renewable energies. Indeed, 39% was produced using coal and 22% with gas. The rest was shared between nuclear, oil and other kind of sources. Hence, electricity production pollutes and enhances global warming since coal and gas are the most used resources.

SOLUTION

Waste-to-energy recovery technologies are a clever solution to these main problems. One of the possible technologies is gasification, which produces a syngas from the waste that can be cleaned afterwards so that it does not pollute when released in the atmosphere. One could think of a small environment where a significant amount of waste is produced and energy is required and hospitals are such. Hospitals could be described as small villages as many people work, eat and are healed. Consequently, hospitals have three different demands at the same time: heating, cooling and electricity. A plant that consists of a gasificator that turns such waste into clean fuel, 4 micro-turbines and an absorption chiller has been designed.

RESULTS

The fuel used is its own waste and municipal waste from the neighborhoods of the hospital. The turbines generate an electric power of 174.31kW and the absorption chiller provides 369.26kW of cooling and 971.42kW of heating. Two optimizations have been carried out on the moisture content of the waste after the dryer and on the exhaust gases temperature. It turned out that a higher moisture decreases significantly the power output and that the optimal temperature for the gasses is 80Â°C. It has been found that the Net Present Value of the plant is 2,804,131â&#x201A;Ź, which makes the plant worth building not only for ecological reasons, but also from an economic perspective.

CONCLUSION

Regarding the input necessity, it is clear that the generation of refuse from the hospital does not cover the waste input requirement and waste from other sources will be needed. Plant design-wise, the less moisture of the waste and the lowest possible temperature of the exhaust gasses are preferable. The NPV of the plant is positive and the payback time is found to be 7.3 years. As a consequence, based on the assumption made in this study, the plant is worth building as a significant amount of money will be saved. This certain conclusion could be considered very favorable in a perspective of transition to sustainable cities.

Master course Project no. 308

COMPAX Solutions 1

J. F. Blekastad , T. Bogevik , A. Engebakken , and C. Wilhelmsen 1

NTNUâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s School of Entrepreneurship, NTNU, Norway 2 Mechanical Engineering, NTNU, Norway

THE PROBLEM Large amounts of paper towels are spent in public and commercial restrooms every year. Waste bins must be emptied up to two times a day, including inspection. This implies considerably large amounts of plastic bags consumed. There are large costs associated with cleaning management due to low operational efficiency. In addition, many restrooms experience waste overflow. Summarized, these factors cause a; practical, economic, hygienic and environmental problem.

THE SOLUTION COMPAX will enhance the cleaning experience in restrooms by introducing smart waste compactors, fitting up to 10 times more paper towels in a single plastic bag using vacuum technology (Figure 1) The waste compactor will make restroom waste management more efficient, cost-saving and more environmentally friendly. By significantly reducing the volume of paper towel waste, while at the same time collecting valuable information from a smart system, COMPAXâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s product will improve both the utilization of volume in the plastic bags and the working experience for the cleaning staff.

TECHNOLOGY STATUS The core team has performed initial tests of the underlying technology that constitutes the waste compactor to get a proof of concept (POC). The tests are positive and shows great potential. Furthermore, the core team has initiated activities related to building a prototype which will be tested together with NTNU during June and July 2018. Results and feedback from these tests will taking into consideration when developing the final design, and smallscale production is expected to start in mid-2019.

Figure 1: Waste compactor before, under, and after compression process

Master course Project no. 309

Design of Autonomous Dredger K. H. J. JĂźrgensen DTU Design and Innovation, Technical University of Denmark Many organizations worldwide manage their waste streams through the process of land dumping. Landfills receiving different mixtures of municipal, commercial and industrial waste cause the liquid passing through solid matter to become contaminated. This â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;cocktailâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of liquid and extracted solid substances is called leachate and contains dissolved organic matter, inorganic macro components, heavy metals and more. To prevent leachate from leaking into the soil and groundwater creating an environmental hazard, natural and artificial reservoirs are sealed with impermeable liners called geomembranes, are built to store and control the liquid. The size of these reservoir can vary from 400-250.000 m2 and keeps the leachate still for sedimentation. This process builds up a thick layer of solid sludge in the bottom of the reservoir, which over time will clog the drainage system and submerged machinery, such as pumps. The problem is well known, but only few of these organizations actually manage to prevent these situations from happening. This leads to hiring construction companies to manually pump or dig up large volumes of sludge with excavators, being a very expensive, tedious and risk full solution, do to the danger of puncturing the geomembranes keeping the liquid isolated from the soil.

Figure 1: Reservoir 1

Figure 2: Reservoir 2

To prevent clogging, risk of puncturing and efficiently remove the sediment from the bottom of the reservoir, dredgers with a connected hose are used to pump up the sediment and transport it into an onshore facility for further processing. These dredgers are controlled manually either remotely or steered by a person, which also drives up the cost of this operation. In this project we will demonstrate how an autonomous driven dredger can be built with low cost and maintenance in mind. With this initiative we hope to lower the risk environmental hazards do to leaking leachate water, by making an appealing and affordable solution for the waste treatment facilities.

Figure 3

Figure 4

Master course Project no. 310

Development of Bio-Composite Material for Use in Motorcycle Applications 1

G. A. Chatzistefanou , K. Mavrokostidou , K. Dedousi and I. Dedonakis

School of Civil Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki School of Mechanical Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

INTRODUCTION Composite materials are used nowadays extensively in automotive applications owing to their advantageous characteristics. Although often perceived as having an improved ecological footprint over traditional materials through light-weighting, environmental pressure is being shifted on the end-of-life stage of a vehicle. Challenges associated with disposal and recycling, as well as the emerging governmental directives dictate the need for new â&#x20AC;&#x153;greenâ&#x20AC;? materials. The purpose of this study is to develop such an ecological material, which will be actually used in a real racing motorcycle prototype.

LITERATURE REVIEW A comprehensive literature review of the most researched and readily utilized natural fibers and matrices was conducted, in order to assess their performance as well as to identify potential challenges associated with their implementation. Furthermore, similar real-life applications were also researched in order to avoid potential infringement risks. Finally, after taking into account the requirements of a racing motorcycle, a synthesis of flax fabric embedded in a PLA matrix was decided, forming a 100% bio-derived and biodegradable material although accompanied with potential weaknesses to environmental factors.

ANALYTICAL STUDIES Several analytical studies were conducted in order to formulate the technology of the proposed bio-composite and provide proof of concept, before proceeding in actual implementation. First of all, various finite elements (FE) models of different complexity and thus computational cost were developed, simulating the ASTM D3039 tensile test and the ASTM D7264 4-point bending test in order to establish the correct simulation rules of the novel material, which will be later used in full FE models of the motorcycle fairing parts. Secondly, a life-cycle assessment was carried out, in order to evaluate the environmental impact of the proposed material in comparison to the traditionally used in motorsport, carbon-fiber composites and to prove that the bio-composite is actually ecological.

EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES Tensile, 4-point bending, impact and moisture absorption tests according to ASTM standards were carried out, in order to assess the performance of different compositions of the material and to calibrate the FE models. Additionally, experimental investigations of the impact on performance of different manufacturing processes and UV and humidity exposure were carried out. The biodegradability of the proposed material was also put to test, in order to prove its ecological attribute. Finally, the optimal material composition was decided based on the resulting data, before proceeding in actual implementation on a racing motorcycle prototype.

Master course Project no. 311

Drugging Our Environment 1,2

M. Gabrielli , K. von Borries , and Z. Zhang 1

DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark; DICA, Politecnico di Milano

The release of pharmaceuticals in the environment is receiving increasing attention worldwide due to their toxic effect on the environment and their possibility of re-entering the food-chain. Their presence in natural streams has only recently been assessed since these compounds occur at concentrations close to the detection limit, which is why they have not been included in routine monitoring programs previously. Modeling the fate of these compounds allows to establish a model-based priority list of the most persistent and potentially hazardous chemicals, and accordingly plan strategies for their removal during the urban drainage and water treatment process. Furthermore, the results obtained can be used to optimize sampling through a model-based approach minimizing costs and maximizing the recovered information. In our project we used recently available data from a large monitoring campaign in Nosedo in 2010 and 2011 to model the fate of different pharmaceuticals with an integrated urban water system (IUWS) model (cp. Fig. 1). The integration of the catchment, sewer system, WWTP and river allowed us to consider the relevant compartment-specific processes as well as their interactions with other compartments. This way our model succeeded in reflecting the concentrations present in the different compartments based on publicly available usage and chemical data of the different pharmaceuticals. Furthermore, the wastewater treatment plant of Nosedo (Italy) constitutes one of the major examples in Europe of wastewater treatment connected to a surface water, which is subsequently used for crop irrigation and food production. Therefore, a following step of the project, which has not been implemented yet, will consist in the estimation of the uptake and bioaccumulation of these pharmaceuticals present in the surface water.

Figure 1: Map of the Nosedo catchment with measurements of the pharmaceuticals Ibuprofen, Diclofenac and Carbamazepine at the inlet and outlet of the WWTP as well as predictions for their release and environmental concentrations.

Master course Project no. 312

Engineering System Design: Aquaponic Urban Community Farm A. S. Larsen, T. B. Frederiksen, J. Knudsen, M. Rosholm, M. G. Møller and T. O. Pedersen DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Currently, food is being produced and distributed from all over the world. Different types of vegetables can only grow in certain climates and certain fish only live in specific bodies of water. This system is inadequate for several reasons; firstly, in order to keep up with the projections of the world’s population, close to 10 billion people in 2050, there is a need to produce 70% more food. With the current traditional agricultural systems this is not possible. Secondly, there is large amounts of food waste in some parts of the world, where other parts are living in hunger. This requires the food distribution system to be changed. One of the solutions to these issues can be aquaponics. Aquaponics is a technology combining aquaculture (raising fish) and hydroponics (soilless growing of vegetables). The two ecosystems co-exist in symbiosis, with the plants living off the nutrients provided by the fish and in return clean the water which goes back to the fish. By using aquaponics instead of traditional agriculture, both fish and vegetables can be grown locally, saving transportation, packaging and reducing water usage and CO2 emissions from several sources. Therefore, this project aims to diffuse the concept of aquaponics.

THE SOLUTION The proposed design solution implements aquaponics in the context of an urban community farm, to emphasise the social development. An urban community farm is meant in the idea of a society where families grow, and harvest produce together in their local area. The social experience combined with the urban community farm will help citizens understand the problem with food production and distribution in the future and diffuse the idea of aquaponics, within local communities. This helps to achieve some of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations. Community gardens and urban farming already exist, but this project has focused on creating a new type of communal food production by using the term “urban community farm” with focus on sustainable food production. The project aim, to diffuse the concept of aquaponics, was sought to be obtained throughout different levels of the engineering system. At the product level, the aim was to explore the possibilities of aquaponics and develop a product concept to inspire people for changing the consumption patterns. At the use level in the community, the current food system was analysed to find how aquaponics could fit in. From an overall perspective, the global food production and distribution system was investigated to understand the potential impact of aquaponic food production.

IMPLEMENTATION The concept of an aquaponic urban community farm was tested with users through workshop and surveys including a prototype of an aquaponic growing module. All learnings gained through the projects including user feedback, recommendations and tips were combined into a booklet, serving as client material for anyone wanting to start an urban community farm using aquaponics.

Master course Project no. 313

Extraction of CO2 from Binary Mixture by Lonic Liquids 1

E. Liu , J. Chen , Y. Liu , Z. Wu

Sino/Danish Center for Education and Research, Beijing, China 2 DTU Chemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION

Shale gas is a kind of natural gas that can be exploited in shale formations. It mainly contains methane but also with certain amount of carbon dioxide, which needs to be removed before utilization. Ionic liquids are the composed of cation and anion, they present high performances in many different properties such as low melting point, wide electrochemical window, adjustable solvation behavior good CO 2 solubility. Therefore, one of the most useful application is CO2 absorption in shale gas. After using ionic liquid as solvent to capture CO2, not only the shale gas will be purer, but also has less solvent and energy consumption.

METHODOLOGY

Firstly, the concrete composition of binary gas mixture needs to be defined and one ionic liquid [thtdp][phos] has be chosen. Rigorous thermodynamic model of IL-based system was established. It includes pure properties of the IL and the NRTL parameters of IL-CO2 binary system. Then the simulation of process in Aspen Plus is been done and try to optimize operation parameters. Finally, an optimal simulation results such as CO2 purity is obtained.

RESULTS

The solution of [thtdp][phos].have a good performance as a decarburization IL solvent. Compared with MDEA-based technology to extracting CO2, the results showed that even though IL-based decarburization process will consume more solvents but save much energy consumption

Master course Project no. 314

FEM Design Considerations for Sustainable Aircraft 1

S. Amoutzidis , R. Singh , N. Wiegman

1 2

DTU Sustainable Energy , Technical University of Denmark DTU Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Aircraft are one of the primary modes of transportation in our modern world. It is also one of the final means of transport to be hybridized or electrified. Conventional aircrafts consume large amount of fossil fuels, whilst their mechanical components demand high maintenance and material cost. We aim to bring state-of-the-art electromagnetic technologies to the aviation sector, enabling a new era of flight. The nature of flight desires a different optimal design than a stationary application, or even a land- or water-based vehicle. We are working towards improving existing technologies for use with aircraft, both the on-board Electric Power and Propulsion System (EPPS) and the stationary Recharging System (RS). We are working with different companies around the world on improving these technologies. We propose a system to modify a current aircraft design for long-range, Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) flight. A VTOL aircraft can land nearly anywhere, while retaining the range and cruise speed advantages of conventional, wing-bourne flight.

SYSTEM DESIGN CHALLENGES Any aircraft goes through a routine before, during, and after flight. Normally, this means maintenance, refueling, pre-flight checks, and many other things in addition to actual flight. As we have Electrical Engineering backgrounds, we focused on the electrical aspects of both the aircraft EPPS and RS. The VTOL flight plan creates two very different power and speed requirements for the EPPS, with separate motor efficiencies at each operating point. Creating a near-optimal motor design for these two operating points will increase the overall aircraft range, hopefully increasing the adoption rate of electric aircraft technology. Energy storage is important to the RS, because it enables a lower power, longer usage of the grid electricity, reducing stresses on the local power system. Flywheels utilizing a Motor/Generator (M/G) have some advantages like high power and energy densities, longer life, and broader range of operating temperature over conventional batteries. The M/G can be improved through the use of Magnetic couplings (MCs), which can transfer torque without physical contact, thereby reducing chance of damage and increasing the lifetime of the RS. Improving the RS makes large-scale implementation of electric aircraft possible.

OUR SOLUTION Our analysis of these EPPS and RS components focuses on using FEM to increase of systemâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s performance with better utilization of existing resources. Under the scope of sustainable designing, a similar amount of materials were utilized, while still increasing the performance solely by improvement of each componentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s geometry. Our solution helps to create a progressive, sustainable aircraft for the future.

Master course Project no. 315

Highlighting More Environmentally Friendly Supply Chains 1

K. A. van Kooten , R. Mata , O. ElkjĂŚr , M. Koliba

DTU Management, Technical University of Denmark DTU Mathematical Modelling, Technical University of Denmark 3 DTU Mechanical, Technical University of Denmark 4 DTU Digital Media, Technical University of Denmark

BACKGROUND The fast-fashion industry is an incredibly competitive industry, relying heavily on cheap-, and therefore quickly produced products. The leather industry within fast-fashion, is an incredibly environmentally damaging industry, and is linked with numerous sustainability issues including climate change (CO2 emissions), deforestation (rearing of livestock), water use (livestock and tanneries), pollution (tanneries), human rights violations (tanneries and production facilities) and animal cruelty. Many of these issues typically stem from the rearing of livestock, but are also present in the treatment, processing and tanning of animal hides, to create leather products. This issue are in large part due to hyper competitiveness on pricing within fast-fashion, leading to a focus of more damaging- rearing, treatment and processing techniques, due to their cheaper price, to the detriment of the environment. More sustainable approaches to the leather industry are emerging, that are far less polluting, less water intensive, comply with legal land use, appropriate working conditions and better animal welfare, and by highlighting products made through these better supply chains, a more environmentally friendly leather fashion industry can develop.

THE PROBLEM Companies have trouble conveying their sustainable efforts to consumers, which continues the movement of the fast-fashion in an unsustainable direction. If consumers are to choose less environmentally damaging leather products, created through more environmentally sustainable supply chains, they must be informed that more environmentally friendly products do exist, and that this choice is better for the environment, and animal welfare.

THE SOLUTION By scanning a specific QR code tagged, more environmentally friendly leather product, customers will be presented with the journey and life of their product. This will be shown visually through an interactive map, starting at the farm from where the animals were raised, to the tannery which the hide was treated, to the production facility where the product was made, and finally to the retailer from which the product was bought, and all the correct sustainability related certifications throughout the supply chain. Through this new interaction, consumers will be able to see where and how their product was created, that it was done in a more environmentally friendly manner, to promote more sustainable fashion efforts.

Master course Project no. 316

Home Automation for Sustainable Electricity Consumption 1

H. Vemuri , S. Anayah 1

DTU Wind Energy, Technical University of Denmark Environmental Science, University of Copenhagen

INTRODUCTION The electricity we consume at home has different sources some renewable and some nonrenewable. The nature of the source of your electricity is dictated by many variables the dominating of which are the demand and supply. The parties that have set their goals to make the electrical grid more sustainable have traditionally been focused on the supply side. In this project we aim to prove concept for our simple user-friendly home automation tools that can help accommodate more renewables into residential electricity consumption, so people can take climate action into their own hands.

PROBLEM Residential households can add flexibility to the electricity grids to accommodate for more renewables. This aspect is not pursued because it is very difficult to change behavior of residents. For example, of 144 people we reached out to in a survey 65 % admitted to running their washing machines during a high demand our of the day when there are more non-renewables in the electricity mix. Although the suggestion would be to run it on a different time of the day it is very inconvenient not run this on a different hour. We want to propose create solution that requires very little behavioral change while reducing the carbon footprint of individuals.

SOLUTION Our solution is a simple IOT based add-on, almost like a travel adapter that can simply be added to a home equipment. The functions of the simple adapter would be to 1) let a resident run home appliance later when it is better for the environment 2) Learn from the electricity suppliers about when it would be optimal 3) calculate and inform the reduced carbon emissions and the money saved by doing so. Our calculations show that we can reduce about 0.25 Million tons of Carbon emissions for every 1000 users of our solution.

VISION Currently we have finished our first phase (as part of Climate-KIC journey) of research where we collected responses from individuals to understand how this solution will be welcomed. We have calculated the positive climate impacts and the economic savings that our solution can create. Based on our first phase of research we have put together a business plan to turn this into a startup. At the time of publishing this abstract we are currently developing a prototype that will be presented at GRĂ&#x2DC;N DYST.

Master course Project no. 317

Increasing Workplace Productivity through Harnessing Liveability and Well-Being in Commercial Buildings C. Forero Bordamalo1, J. M. G Holland2, T. Rastogi3 2

1MSc.

Candidate, Copenhagen Business School MSc. Business and Organisational Anthropology, København Universitet 3 MSc. International Business, Ivey Business School (Canada)

INTRODUCTION

Following the aim to contribute to solutions that enable people to flourish at work, promoting a better quality of life, increased productivity and broader economic growth, this proposal aims to support the UN SDG 8. Given the worldwide drop in labour productivity and consequently annual growth rate of real GDP per worker, this project aims to identify the drivers of occupants’ well-being in commercial buildings and its economic impact, envisaging a way to measure this connection in both a pre and post-occupancy framework. In this context we are pleased to present our contribution to this objective, with the conducted research and created model: a) an extensive analysis of green building certifications identifying the key drivers of productivity; b) a comprehensive scientifically-based Matrix documenting the effects of these drivers in human well-being, performance and productivity; and c) a Post-Occupancy Evaluation Metric to assess the degree of human well-being and improved performance achieved through indoor environment design. These tools are critical to understanding a virtuous cycle triggered by healthy and satisfied employees working at their best, benefiting a variety of stakeholders and satisfying a market demand.

METHODS & THEORY

A multidisciplinary scientific literature review, an analysis of green building standards, surveys and ethnographic interviews with industry experts was conducted to gain a holistic understanding liveability and well-being in the workplace. Porter’s theory of shared value was utilised to show increased value for a variety of stakeholders through productivity.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION The enhancement of employees’ well-being in commercial buildings can translate into a healthier and a more productive work environments. Research shows that improved Indoor Environment Quality (IEQ) factors are directly correlated to improved work performance, increased productivity and broader financial impacts (Romm & Browning, 1994; Wyon & Wargocki, 2013). Our analysis demonstrated that green building certifications are a relatively accurate representation of user requirements and good building design, affecting different factors of productivity. Furthermore, studies confirm that when employees’ wellbeing at the workplace increases, their quality of experience and outputs raises, along with increased job satisfaction which in turn raises productivity rates. Thus, designing and investing in built environments that enhance inhabitants’ flourishment, is a sound financial strategy for a variety of stakeholders of commercial building projects and public administration (MacLeod & Clarke, 2009, p. 5). Shared value can be created for inhabitants, employees, tenants, investors and the public sector. As such, harnessing liveability and well-being in commercial buildings can create shared value for all stakeholders while alleviating the challenge of increasing labour productivity as mandated by SDG 8.

Master course Project no. 318

MakeItCircle, Deposit System for Plastic Shopping Nets 1

N. C. Sahin , L. Tünkers 1

Master in Organizational Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Copenhagen Business School

WHAT WE SEE

“The future will either be green or not at all” - Bob Brown Amongst multiple issues, the overproduction, usage and disposal of plastics are detrimental to the future of this planet. Worldwide 1 Trillion plastic bags are sold annually, 100 Billion in Europe and 450 Million in Denmark (The Danish Ecological Council). 92% of these plastic bags are used once only, which is neither resource-efficient nor environmentally friendly. It is important to note that plastic as a material is not the problem, in fact for many products it is still the least environmentally harmful material we have to date. The problem is the way we often treat products made from plastic, as disposable single-use objects with no value.

WHAT WE DO We are MakeItCircle and our mission is to reduce plastic waste. For the past months we have been working on a circular deposit system for durable, reusable shopping nets that aims to drastically reduce the amount of waste created by supermarket shopping bags. Multiple surveys have shown that customers, despite owning various variations of durable carrier bags, frequently buy new bags due to spontaneous shopping trips, forgetfulness or unexpected volume of purchases. In contrast to current options, customers can purchase our nets with a clear conscience and simply return a stack of them at collection machines outside the supermarkets. A deposit of 2 dkk will give an incentive to value and return the nets. We will continuously collect, clean and reintroduce nets back into the circle by reselling them to the supermarkets. As the nets will be produced from recycled nylon fishing nets which have been collected from the oceans they are very durable and an average life cycle of at least 20 sales can be expected. Once a net has to be removed from the cycle, the design and material ensures an easy recycling process. Now is the perfect time to pursue this idea: The UN SDGs, the effort by the Danish government to formulate a never before existing plastic strategy and the Life Cycle Assessment recently published by DTU and the Ministry of Environment and Food of Denmark have increasingly put the spotlight on environmental consciousness and especially on the impact, issues and advantages of plastic. WHAT IS OUR IMPACT

Our system allows supermarkets and customers to operate especially in accordance with the SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production) and do their part to save the environment at no extra charge. Rolling out our system to the Danish market, we estimate to make the production of 80% of all plastic bags sold in Denmark obsolete. In numbers that means that we aim to reduce the number of plastic bags newly produced and sold from 450 Million to less than 100 Million. But not only will MakeItCircle drastically reduce the number of plastic bags produced, we will also make sure our operation creates next to no plastic waste by keeping the nets in a circular system for as long as possible. In a less tangible manner, our social impact will be visible in the possible behavioural change of consumers towards a multiple usage of all plastics. This will result from our efforts in customer education and the promotion of a positive story and revised image of plastic as a material.

Master course Project no. 319

Post-Combustion CO2 Capture by Biomass/Waste Chars 1,2

1,2

P. Qin , J. Li , X. Yan , Y. Wen 1,2 2 2 Supervisors: B. Ulusoy , H. Wu , K. Dam-Johansen 1

Sino-Danish Center for Education and Research, Beijing, China Department of Chemical and Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION

The massive use of fossil fuels, such as petroleum, coal, and natural gas, excrete a large amount of CO2 each year, causing a global greenhouse effect. At present, most countries in the world have established strict CO2 emission regulations, thereby making carbon (CO2) capture and storage in post-combustion emissions is very important. The current carbon capture technology relies on gas absorption in alkanolamine solutions. The major disadvantage of this process is the high energy consumption in relation to reagent recovery. Another promising method is to capture CO2 using solid adsorbents such as activated carbon, molecular sieves, and natural zeolites. In this project, we aim to produce low-cost activated carbon from biomass and waste fuels, and investigate the CO 2 adsorption and desorption characteristics of the chars.

METHOD

Biomass and waste chars will be chosen as precursors for the preparation of activated carbon. The preparation and characterization methods include:



Prepare char using a horizontal oven followed by physical and/or chemical activation of char

Figure 1

 

Measure surface area and pore size distribution in a BET equipment Investigate the CO2 adsorption and desorption properties of the chars using a Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) and a fixed bed setup

EXPECTED RESULT

Biomass and waste chars would be reactive in the CO2 adsorption and capture process. The outcome of this project would show the feasibility of using low-cost and renewable materials to capture CO2 with high efficiency.

Master course Project no. 320

ProFlakes – A BSG Cereal 1

I. Altay, 2B. Khan

DTU Food Technology, Technical University of Denmark DTU General Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

ProFlakes is a new ready-to-eat (RTE) product, it is a crunchy cereal for a nutritional breakfast. This product is aimed to be a delicious ready-made, nutritious, innovative and eco-friendly with a packaging design consisting of cardboard box with a cellophane bag inside. The need for ProFlakes comes from the inspiration of using the beer brewing byproduct ‘spent grain’ that might contribute human diet by means of providing high fiber and protein. The market analysis shows a good result for the breakfast cereal situation and its expected revenue growth where it shares the biggest percentage among breakfast products preferred in Denmark. According to the positive results obtained from of these analyses, it can be said that the situation is in favor for ProFlakes to enter the market. Target consumers are people who are interested in high nutritional content and eco-friendly products. Especially, the age group of 21-30 and people with children are targeted considering the Danish statistics. Spent grains for the production is going to be obtained from ‘Albani Bryggerierne A/S’ which located in Odense (Andreas Falkenberg, Production manager). However, other breweries are also targeted to be in cooperation with for a bigger production in the future. The sales strategy is relied on small supermarkets and institution as start point. The institutions are a big part of children's everyday breakfast routine, the reason why to target these institutions. The launching strategy is applied on a year basis where different approaches and targets are listed. By following the Gantt chart the company should be ready to produce and sell product within a year. The breakeven point is estimated to be 2 years and 3 months. Earnings after breakeven point for the third year is 2,588,544.00 DKK and the earnings for the fourth year is 6,938,030.40 DKK. Expected sales for first year, second year, third year and fourth year are 6.000 units, 60.000 units, 300.000 units and 600.000 units respectively.

Master course Project no. 321

Recovery of Precious Metals Using a Bio-Solar System A. Chawla, V. Pusateri DTU Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Metals have played essential roles in promoting global economy as each metal and its alloys with unique characteristics make them interesting for wide applications and they are used as important components for some industrial activities as well to produce various products such as automobiles, low-carbon energy technologies and electronic and biomedical device, etc. We propose to develop an innovative process that integrate the Microbial Electro Metallurgy (MEM) for Platinum and Palladium recovery with solar energy. In this integrated system, the anode will play a role as electron donor for the system by oxidizing organic matters in the wastewater, through the metabolism of electrochemically active bacteria, operated in a continuous mode. In the cathode, the PGMs will be recovered by accepting the electrons from anode, through the metabolic pathways of the specific functional bacterium.

Figure 1

ADDED VALUE TO THE COMMUNITY The solution proposed within this project address this problem in a perspective of circular economy and reduction of GHG emissions. Hence, the use of MEM would substitute more energy demanding and polluting technologies used nowadays for recycling of precious metals highly used in technological devices fundamental in the current society. Moreover, another target issue of this project point to the increasing scarcity of non-renewable energies (e.g. electricity provided by fossil fuels) which can be replaced by efficient renewable energy (e.g. solar energy).

Master course Project no. 322

Sensero – Visualizing Energy Loss in Electrical Grids Ø. V. Aarø, D. O. Drejer, M. S. Helgeby NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway

PROBLEM Losses in the electrical power grid represent one of the biggest expenses for grid operators nearly € 205 million yearly in Norway alone. Power grid operators currently lack the information and the tools to know where these losses occur. At the same time, 200 million sensors are being implemented in the grid and in homes all over Europe. These sensors produce vast amounts of data which contain currently hidden and valuable information. However, there is a huge gap in the market between the available data and the tools needed to leverage it into valuable information.

SOLUTION We are making software solutions that combine different types of sensor-data from the grid to give the customer insight into the power flow and losses in their grid. This insight gives the customer powerful decision support, and a real-time view of the grid's status. Our solution differs from other solutions in its user-friendliness, modularity, scalability, and ease of integration. The heart of our product is developed by and used at the particle accelerator at CERN.

CLIMATE IMPACT Our solution provides information about where in the electrical grids the biggest losses are, making it possible for DSOs to operate more efficiently and improve inefficient infrastructure. By doing so, more of the produced energy can be utilized, instead of going to waste. This means that the produced renewable energy can be used by more consumers and that less non-renewable energy needs to be produced. This will surely have a positive impact on our environment.

TECHNOLOGY STATUS Our software solution is based on a software framework developed at CERN, created for structuring, analyzing and visualizing the data from all the sensors connected to the LHC. We are currently developing our own analysis modules compliant with their solution for calculating and allocating the losses in the grid. Having the software framework from CERN as the foundation does that we rapidly can develop solutions that have reliable and robust data acquisition and flow. One of the strengths of this software is its flexibility. It can handle input from different sensor types, and this does that we can aggregate data from all the software- and sensor systems of the utility. Another strength is that the software can handle great amounts of data. The utilities have huge amounts of sensors, but no software that utilizes its value across data sources. The utilities have grown tired of non-compatible systems, and we want to full-fill this need in the market by developing flexible and integrating software solutions.

Master course Project no. 323

Service Shaper A. Karmann, E. Andreakou, S. Vestergaard, S. Bach, S. Ringive DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Service Shaper is a design solution that enables the Municipality of Copenhagen procure or implement more services, contributing to pulling the market towards a green transition and circular economy. It is a design framework that helps public procurers assess the potential of a service and eventually end up with a business plan for implementing it in the procurement process. The overall aim of this project has been to improve sustainability in public procurement and eventually meet the #12 SDG “sustainable consumption and production”.

THEORY The study and design solution has been conducted from the student-consulting group Heptaclus for the course 42090: Holistic Design of Engineering Systems, of the Technical University of Denmark. The group worked with an engineering systems design approach, where different levels of the engineering system has been analysed in order to understand how the elements of each level interact and how are they interconnected and influenced as part of a larger system.

METHODS The team’s design process included gathering research and empirical data, followed by an analysis of the system. The analysis draws upon tools from the first part of Frame Creation; Archaeology, Paradox, Context and Field, which are focusing past actions of the system, oppositional forces, needs and current processes, that performs within the system. Additionally, the team found it crucial to withhold continuous interaction with the client, Team Green Public Procurement. A variety of interviews and co-creation sessions were done with different stakeholders depending on which step of the analysis and the development process the project was. Throughout the process, the client was involved in order to give insights and feedback as well as co-design the final solution.

RESULTS To explore the solution space and identify impact of different interventions, three concepts were created, targeting different end-users and focusing on different phases of the procurement process. Based on feasibility analysis, the final solution chosen and further developed was the Service Shaper. The Service Shaper is a process tool that will assist the public procurers in generating and implementing more services in public procurement. The tool is an easy to follow process that guides the procurers through five important phases and helps them shape and qualify a service.

Master course Project no. 324

Smart Charging of Electrical Vehicles 1

C. Düsterdich Hansen , F. S. Hansen , J. Buch-Lorentsen 1

DTU Management, Technical University of Denmark 2 DTU Physics, Technical University of Denmark 3 DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark

The average electrical vehicle (EV) in Denmark is charged with 46% renewable sources. It is, however, possible to utilize higher amounts of renewables by charging the EV at the correct time of day. This requires a forecast of the amount of renewables throughout the day, along with a relay to switch on the charger of the EV during the optimal time frame. Using a Wi-Fi enabled microcontroller connected to a relay between the power supply and the EV charger, one can optimize for renewable energy sources.

Figure 1: Visualization of battery power sources (left) and micro controller and relay (right).

This solution empowers the EV owner to use more renewable energy and reduce his/her environmental impact. An app that displays the impact of the solution would provide a simple visualization of the different sources of energy that have been used to charge the battery for the user. The technology can potentially be expanded to home batteries, i.e. the Tesla “PowerWall”. In countries like Denmark, where the amount of energy from renewables vary a lot, this solution can potentially help shifting the electricity consumption to the production of renewable energy, reducing the need for power plants.

Master course Project no. 325

Solar Shading with Integrated Energy Design for Buildings W. P. T. Poon1, S. M. Kløve1 1 MSc

1 MSc

Sustainable Architecture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology Energy and Environmental Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology

INTRODUCTION Today there are several challenges for utilising solar energy in buildings, these include: the losing of valuable spaces when tilting the roof in new builds to optimise solar energy production; conventional solar panels require a relatively large surface area for shorter ROI, therefore roof mounted solar panels are economically infeasible for skyscrapers; most flat owners do not have access to roof spaces for installing solar panels, therefore do not have the option for producting solar energy; the absent of solar-tech for glazed buildings; exterior solar panels are subject to stresses by weather and pollutions. NårgeSol’s solution is to combine solar shading with energy production through capturing solar power in windows with ‘solar curtains’. The solution increases building’s self-sufficiency, while offers a new dimension in harvesting renewable energy by turning building window facade from passive to an active elements. ‘Solar curtains’ can be placed in both new builds and already-in-placed windows, offering architects, interior designers and electrical engineers a new alternative. By utilising bi-directional solar cells, indoor light source can also be captured and recirculated as part of the energy along with solar energy, offering a circular solution to architecture through integrated energy design.

USPS OF THE CONCEPT -

Integrated energy design solution that turn windows into active elements No additional space required compare to solar panels Minimise building’s carbon footprint without major renovation Circular solution: re-circulating indoor light source as part of the energy

FACTORS DETERMINING ENERGY OUTPUT -

Orientations and sizes of windows and curtains Window glass properties e.g. low-e coated glass would minimize the amount of ultraviolet and infrared light that can pass through glass and hence reduce solar cell energy output Light spectrum of the indoor light source Joining method of electrical parts The type of solar cell to be utilized

MAIN CHALLENGES OF THE CONCEPT Challenges Technical / Design

Economical

Solar cells transparency for daylight and energy balance Wiring of cables Low energy efficiency of flexible solar cells compare to conventional solar panels Higher risk for maintenance due to the roll-able feature High cost leads to longer ROI

Master course Project no. 326

Super Villa A. Mohamad, D. Moskoveli, E. Gkouvelou and S. Barua DTU Architectural Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION In Denmark at present, there are about 600,000 typical Nordic Villa built in 1960-80 where the main residents are the elderly population. The aim of this project is to transform one such 1978 Villa, situated in the sparsely populated HillerĂ¸d, into a modern and sustainable home while still maintaining the original aesthetics through materiality.

The Vision To upgrade the existing single storied 4 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; person villa to accommodate more inhabitants and different households (e.g. single family, couple, large family with children and grandparents, students); which would lead to future densification and upgrade of the suburbia as well as promote long term living. To design a low energy house that rightly promotes a sustainable way of living not only for the occupants but also ultimately, for the entire neighbourhood.

THEORY Based on some initial energy simulations and theoretical knowledge, a semi outdoor space (shell) should lead to 1/3 reduction in energy consumption. It is an unheated space that acts as a thermal buffer between the building (core) and the external environment and also facilitates passive means of ventilation.

METHOD An initial LCA analysis has been carried out which dictated the reuse and recycle strategies of the existing materials. Several conceptual designs and iterations have been undergone in order to find the most optimal solution. Densification is being achieved by adding a second storey and redesigning the internal spaces, leading to a total of 4 different apartments. Energy efficiency is being achieved by introducing a shared, transparent semi outdoor space. Utilization of daylight leading to reduced need for artificial lighting. Wood has been used for the main structural system over concrete due to its good LCA profile; furthermore LCA-evaluated and pre-fab materials have been proposed for the new design. Sustainability is being further achieved by introducing a shared green roof and vertical farming urban cultivation options, solar panels (PV and thermal), rainwater and greywater systems. Moreover, the shared spaces would lead to more socialization and interaction between the inhabitants, thus creating a sense of community.

RESULTS The final design and results will be undertaken during the 3-week course period in June. The final results should show a truly sustainable and energy efficient design with optimized systems that also prioritize indoor climate and user comfort. The project has been conducted as part of the Master course 11982 Integrated Design Project F18 under the headline: Densification and upgrade of suburbia.

Master course Project no. 327

SuPo, Foster Sustainable Behavior at Universities J. Ocampo, L. TĂźnkers Master in Organizational Innovation & Entrepreneurship, Copenhagen Business School

INTRODUCTION Sustainability is a global and urgent concern but, what does it mean in the context of universities? After studying diverse stakeholders, we identified two issues that obstruct sustainability for the CBS community: A lack of student engagement and unconcerned individuals. Since universities are environments where the change-makers of tomorrow shape their mindsets and values, universities need to address the daily behaviour of its community in order to strengthen sustainability.

THEORY & METHODS Community currencies (CC) are monies that exist side by side conventional money. They are designed to meet the needs of a specific and limited community (ccia, 2015). Universities can be understood as such a community. To foster sustainable behavior on campuses, the SuPo project develops a campus CC. In developing SuPo, we followed the steps of other community currencies (ccia, 2015). First, we mapped the needs and resources of stakeholders to CBS campus. We then designed a monetary model that connected unmet needs with spare resources and tested it through a simulation. SuPo is based on platform cooperativism (Scholz, 2016) to facilitate community interaction and collective decision on what new projects to invest in (areas to earn or spend). The SuPo model includes a set of community funds that focus on specific SDGs. Users decide what fund to invest in, and thereby they are able to shape sustainability work on campus. SuPo is not only unique in its design and participatory structures but could also be the first CC to incentivise sustainable behaviors on campus.

Graph 1: The SuPo System

IMPACT SuPo builds on the network effect of two-sided exchange platforms (Eisenmann; Parker, and Marshall, 2009). It thus has the potential to turn the university campus into an engaged community where people are aware about the effect of their behavior on the environment as well as on each other. That is, SuPo has a direct impact on SDGs 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) and 17 (Partnerships for the Goals).

Master course Project no. 328

Utilizing Recycled Plastic in Local Low-Tech Production of Construction Materials M. Heide, R. NĂ¸ddegaard, J. RĂ¸nholt DTU Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION

There is a great need for waste management and development of jobs to raise the living standard especially in emerging countries such as e.g. Zambia, Tanzania, India etc. While considering and balancing the environmental burdens induced by both waste management and increased consumption (i.e. as a result of higher living standards and urbanization), this project targets solutions with low technological entry hurdles and a circular economical nature, that upcoming entrepreneurs can utilize to create affordable products the environmental burden of the society. A field trip including questionnaires and interviews while lowering initiated this project by locating business/production opportunities and needs in local urban areas of Zambia.

METHOD

Fieldtrip: Eight interviews focusing on waste management, waste innovation and circular economy were conducted with different relevant stakeholders. Furthermore completed over 200 questionnaires were compiled to identify the willingness to buy recycled/reused products and to allocate the opportunities and technologies for production hereof. Resource and material flows were analyzed in terms of the ability to create economic durability. Plastic turned out to be an obvious candidate due to its inherent reshaping material property allowing for conversion of waste plastic into e.g. bricks and mosquito nets, with already locally available technology.

RESULTS

The questionnaires and the interviews revealed that around 33% of the Zambian population can sew (and many have irons available), 20% can weld and 45% have construction abilities to some degree (including drilling). These findings were merged with the general observation made during the field trip as well as the information from entrepreneurs with well-functioning production, to design a suitable production from recycled plastic. To realize the project a workshop case book with practical teaching material and videos has been developed and delivered to FACE (Foundation of African Circular economy).

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

In order to achieve social acceptance of affordable and upcycled construction materials, initially smaller constructions (for other purposes than private housing) are used as showcases. Furthermore, aggregate (sand and sawdust) are added to the plastic to create visual looks similar to regular construction materials as well as to save matrix material (i.e. plastic). The structural strength of different combinations (40% plastic / 60% sand and 30% plastic / 70% sand) will be tested and compared to conventional building materials. The melting process demands considerable heat (from wood/coal), thus this process needs further development/refinement. In conclusion the workshop case book will teach participants (i.e. upcoming entrepreneurs) a portfolio of methods to re-melt plastic into new products, while practicing health and safety procedures. However, the method still has some issues regarding exposure to emissions (unspecific plastic fumes). The entrepreneurs will obtain basic knowledge on sorting and recycling of waste and realize that they will become buyers/receivers of the waste; thereby preventing the material to end up in the streets/nature or in the landfills of Zambia.

Master course Project no. 329

Wasted Wodka - Sustainable Vodka from Carrot By-Products 1

A. M. de Vos , M. Noll Nielsen , O. Ă&#x2DC;rnfeld-Jensen , R. Jarlholm Johnsen , 2 1 T. Bach Thomsen , V. Huwiler 1

DTU Food Technology, Technical University of Denmark 2 DTU Bio Technology, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Food waste is a growing problem in the modern society. Due to a growing awareness and need for sustainable solutions, there is a need for innovative ideas of how to turn the waste into useful consumables. In the food production industry in Denmark 133000 tons of eatable food is thrown out each year.(madspild.dk) One of the sources of food waste comes from the production of peeled vegetables e.g. carrots. The amount of waste from carrot processing is approximately 20% of the carrot and the cost for the vegetable company to get rid of the waste is expensive. Today the wasteproducts are used to produce biofuel, but by using carrot-peels as a by-product to produce consumables for humans it can thereby make a more sufficient use of agricultural land.

CONCEPT With the vision that no less than 100% of every carrot should be used for production of human consumables, we have developed a new product. Wasted Wodka is a sustainable method to produce vodka from the by-products in the processed vegetable industry. The peels are first juiced to extract fermentable sugars and then yeast is directly added to the juice to minimize the use of water, making the preparation for the distillation as environmental friendly as possible. After the fermentation the brew is distilled and a clear carrot vodka is produced â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Wasted Wodka.

Figure 1: Production

PROSPECTS To further investigate this technique of producing alcohol from carrot by-product, it should be analyzed if addition of selected enzymes could make the fermentable sugar extraction more efficient. Also, it is possible that the technique can be used to produce other kinds of spirits e.g. gin, pre-made alcoholic beverages, schnapps etc. The technique could possibly be adjusted in order to produce ethanol for industrial use.

REFERENCES http://madspild.dk/madspild-i-foedevareindustrien/

Master course Project no. 330

Working with Natural Processes - The Future for Sustainable Flood Risk Management? A. J. Fielding PGCert Flood and Coastal Risk Management, Lancaster University. Analyst, JBA Consulting

ABSTRACT When it comes to managing flood risk, the historic approach has generally been reactive and focussed on hard engineering solutions. However, it’s becoming increasingly common to seek more sustainable solutions, especially when consideration for the impacts of climate change are assessed. This was outlined within ‘The Pitt Review’ (Pitt, 2008) subsequent to the UK summer floods in 2007. Working with Natural Processes (WwNP) refers to a more pro-active and sustainable method of managing hazards and their adverse impacts on the environment by utilising natural resources to re-establish catchment processes. This approach is far more sustainable but often requires distributed measures across a large area upstream of a targeted area. The concept of WwNP is relatively unproven at large scales and for large magnitude flooding, this may however be attributed to lack of implementation and the difficulty detecting change in observation data at the larger scale. Evidence of this type of work can be found in the WwNP evidence directory (Burgess-Gamble et al., 2018), examples of which include woody debris dams, peatland restoration, and managed realignment in coastal regions. By working with Geographical Information Systems (GIS) a wide variety of open data were mined and developed further utilising a multitude of complex analysis techniques. Following this, a suite of sophisticated interactive maps has been generated to showcase the data highlighting potential areas for WwNP. This innovative work has helped emphasise the application of more sustainable flood risk management to a wide audience at national scale and is replicable beyond the UK with sufficient data and research. Within England and Wales this work is becoming a useful starting point when it comes to the identification of areas with potential to tackle flood risk in a more sustainable manner. It provides a foundation to engage with stakeholders regarding the development of new schemes and can lead the enhancement of natural capital and improved ecosystem services. The potential for WwNP still needs to be further researched, modelled, utilised and monitored with the aid of geospatial information and economic cost-benefit analysis to better understand when it can supplement hard engineering. Especially when it comes to the applicability of these techniques as a viable method for risk management in large magnitude flood events. WwNP does however offer a more sustainable and environmentally sensitive way of managing flood risk, whilst providing multiple benefits and scope for tackling the increasing impacts of climate change in an adaptive manner.

REFERENCES

Burgess-Gamble, L., Ngai, R., Wilkinson, M., Nisbet, T., Pontee, N., Harvey, R., Kipling, K., Addy, S., Rose, S., Maslen, S., Jay, H., Nicholson, A., Page, T., Jonczyk, J., & Quinn, P. (2018). Working with Natural Processes – Evidence Directory. SC150005/R1. Environment Agency. Pitt, M. (2008). The Pitt Review: Learning lessons from the 2007 floods. London: Cabinet Office, 20.

Master course Project no. 331

‘DeTectUs’: Rapid Detection of the Level of Vancomycin Antibiotic in Blood Plasma A.P. Rasmussen3, B. Gezer4, C. Hermansen1, K. Steenberg2, K. Holst4, M. Lind3, M. G. Petersen2, M. El Lakany6, N. Støvrin2, S. G. L. Pedersen2, Z. Szathmáry5 1DTU

Pharmaceutical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark Micro- and Nanotechnology, Technical University of Denmark 3DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark 4DTU Electrical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark 5DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark 6DTU Bioinformatics, Technical University of Denmark

2DTU

AIM A point of care device for the detection of vancomycin levels in blood plasma in a fast, easily and accurately manner in order to accommodate the busy schedules of doctors and nurses at Danish hospitals.

INTRODUCTION Vancomycin is indicated for the treatment of serious, life-threatening infections by Gram-positive bacteria unresponsive to other antibiotics. It is therefore used as an last resort option. Subinhibitory levels is indicated to lead to the development and transfer of resistance genes to non harmful bacteria leading to volatile multi-resistant organisms. Presently, the doctors can order a laboratory technician to perform the vancomycin test but each department only have specific time slots where tests can be taken. du to this and the processing time for a test, the the doctor who ordered the test will not get the result during his/her shift. Thus, the next doctor in shift will have to use valuable time finding out what to do next.

METHOD We identified viable peptide and molecular imprinted polymers (MiPs) biomarker candidates responsive to vancomycin. We employ these to detect vancomycin by functionalizing these to a surface to a transducing surface: Gold electrodes and silicon nanowires (SiNW). The binding of the vancomycin molecules affects the current which yield an observable change in the signal – the conductance sensitivity. These binding events and its corresponding change in flow of current is then translated to an electrical readout in nano and micro Ampere We further incorporate the ability for data transmission to the databases employed at the respective hospitals for ease of access for doctors.

CONCLUSION Ready to use point of care devices for rapid detection of the antibiotic vancomycin at the bedside of the patient, will enable for better treatment strategies in hospitals. Thus alleviating the issue of logistics and not having to wait for results from a central laboratory. In addition this will save valuable resources at the hospital by having the option of sending patients home, if they are fit enough, in order to return for the next administering of antibiotic the next day.

Abstracts Master thesis

Master thesis Project no. 401

A Low-Cost Largescale Investigation of Contamination A. S. SĂ¸rensen DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Groundwater is the main source for drinking water in Denmark and is therefore vulnerable for contamination. Low concentrations of contaminants is able to shut down large well fields leaving behind a need for millions of cubic meter drinking water, rising groundwater tables endangering nearby households and shutting down wells and waterworks worth many millions.

THE CASE SITE The waterworks in BagsvĂŚrd was constructed in 1921 when the area was mainly nature. More buildings were built in the area and the area became a business district. Many drycleaning facilities, machine shops and spray painting workshops are located in the district and they all use chlorinated solvents. The chlorinated solvents were first found in the drinking water abstraction wells in 1987. The contamination led to the closing of four out of six wells. In 1993, a remedial pumping started to prevent the contamination reaching the drinking water abstraction wells. In 2012 the waterworks was rebuild to include activated carbon filters to clean the water as the contamination still reaches the wells. The cost of running the remediation is almost 2 million DKK a year, which equals 1.33 % of the capital regions budget for the environment. As the contamination is still reaching the wells with high concentrations the coal must be changed more frequently resulting in high expenses.

METHODS Before the remediation can be optimized, a better understanding of the source must be obtained. The most expensive part of investigations of contaminated sites is the drilling of wells. Deep wells can easily cost hounded of thousands DKK. The capital region investigates suspected contaminated sites, but it is limited to its cadaster. By collecting and comparing data from multiple contaminated sites, a larger understanding is achieved. As the investigations might be conducted in different years, the investigations cannot be compared. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) keeps a database (Jupiter) of drilled wells which holds the coordinates of the well. By reusing old wells, a largescale investigation can be conducted with solely the price of sampling. When the spreading of the contamination is understood, the remedial pumping can be reevaluated to capture more or all of the contamination through modelling. An advanced 3D model is set up to find the best placements and pumping rates for remedial abstraction wells. An optimal solution will ensure the quality of the water reaching the drinking water abstraction wells thereby removing the need for activated carbon filters.

RESULTS During the project was 87 outdated wells found out of 192. Some wells were hidden under asphalt but reconstructed. Out of the existing and newly found wells, 25 were selected for sampling. The results showed that contamination went under the remedial pumping, which gave rise to implementing a highly conductive gravel layer in the advanced 3D model.

Master thesis Project no. 402

A Novel Method for Microbial Biomass Upconcentration to Improve Biomethanation Process A. JĂŠglot DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark Anaerobic digestion (AD) is a biological process used to convert organic matter into bioenergy (biogas) and biofertilizer in a sustainable way. However, the composition of the organic matter treated by AD affects the microbial activity inside the biogas reactor, endangering process stability and potentially leading to decreased methane yield. For example, the use of urea and protein-rich substrates for biogas production creates high ammonia concentrations in the reactor that inhibit the process. To answer this challenge, bioaugmentation has been used, which is the introduction of acclimatized microbial populations to high inhibitors concentrations inside the inhibited reactor to counteract the inhibition effect. This innovative process has been proven to alleviate the ammonia inhibition and to recover the biogas reactors' full methane production in lab scale experiments. Nonetheless, the required volume of acclimatized bioaugmentation inocula at a commercial scale is higher than at a laboratory scale making the transportation and the inoculuation of the inocula on site unpractictal and uneconomic. In order to bring this technology to a commercial scale, it is essential to optimize the inoculum supply. This could be done by increasing the biomass using forward osmosis (FO). FO is the spontaneous process of the transport of water over a membrane from the side with a solution of low solute concentration (feed) to the side with high solute concentration (draw). The driving force of this process is the difference in osmotic pressure between the two solutions, created by the differences in solute concentrations. This principle can be used to extract water from the inoculum, using a highly concentrated salt solution as a draw. The goal of this study is to examine FO membranes for the upconcentration of bioaugmentation inocula and select the optimal draw solution for this application. Two different configuration of biomimetic thin-film composite (TFC) membranes have been tested: flat- membrane and tubular membrane; provided by Aquaporin A/S (Copenhagen, Denmark). Based on previous studies, three draw solutions were selected and tested in the setup: sodium chloride (NaCl), sodium acetate (NaCH3COO) and glycerol. The preliminary results of the experiment as a proof of concept showed the possibility to upconcentrate the acclimatized inocula up to 90% of the initial concentration while maintaining the microbial activity. The implementation of this process at a larger scale would allow the technology of bioaugmentation to spread and thus improve the biogas production efficiency in full-scale biogas plants.

Schematic diagram of the experimental setup

Master thesis Project no. 403

Achieving Sustainable Concrete Using Particulate Waste B. Ebert DTU Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark With an increased focus on sustainable development and a sustainable future, green engineering calls for changes in current engineering practices. Buildings and infrastructure consume vast amounts of materials and resources, among which concrete and cement are dominant. Cement production emits large amounts of carbon dioxide, accounting for 8% of the global emissions per year. Cement and concrete are therefore key areas of focus for sustainable development. Such progress could come in the form of particulate waste as a secondary resource, when manufacturing cement and concrete. The goal of this thesis has been to study the properties of concrete with alternative additives from particulate waste, such as the leftover residue ash from combined heat and power plants that burns biomass in the form of wood and the commercially worthless tailings from ore mining. In order to determine the potential effectiveness of these alternative additives in concrete, several different tests where made using mortar samples consisting of sand, water and cement, where part of the cement is replaced with the additives. The test consists of measuring the compressive strength is at different points of curing, measuring the changes in compressive strength and workability with increased additive substitution and utilizing thermogravimetric analysis in combination with crushed cement paste samples. The results are compared to a control group consisting of samples without additives and samples with coal fly ash and silica fume. Additionally the alternative additives where characterised chemically. Two types of wood ash and two types of tailings were studied. The wood ash are from AmagervĂŚrkert and KĂ¸ge KraftvarmevĂŚrk, while the tailings are from the Swedish mine Zinkgruvan and the former gold mine Nalunaq in Greenland.

Master thesis Project no. 404

Balancing Energy Recovery with Effluent Quality in a Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant S. Karvelas DTU Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

ABSTRACT Wastewater treatment requires large amounts of energy destined to aeration to support organic carbon and ammonia removal by mineralization to carbon dioxide and nitrogen gas, respectively (Jetten et al., 1997). Traditionally, anaerobic digestion of the produced sludge has been used to produce methane, which can be used to produce heat and power. Therefore, heat can be used to warm different units at treatment plants (e.g. anaerobic digester), while electricity can partially cover the aeration energy demand (Foley et al., 2010). A-stage systems pioneered in the 1970s are currently gaining interest (Boehnke, 1978). This system promotes the up-concentration of the influent organic carbon, referred to as chemical oxygen demand (COD), into sludge. Different alternatives have been proposed for C recovery, including i) microbial assimilation and flocculation at short solid retention times (SRTs) and hydraulic retention times (HRTs), thereby minimizing the COD mineralized to CO2 (Jimenez et al., 2015); ii) chemically enhanced primary clarification, which consists on the use of flocculants and coagulants to recover more primary sludge; or iii) filtration of raw sewage after grit chambers, which can be also enhanced by flocculation and coagulation (Väänänen et al., 2016). The removal of bioavailable organic carbon compromises traditional nutrient removal processes, such as bio-P or nitrification-denitrification (Gori et al., 2011). Phosphorus can be removed via precipitation, whilst partial nitritation-Anammox (PNA) systems are able to remove nitrogen without organic carbon. However, PNA systems have not been successfully implemented as main stream treatment process in countries with cold climates, such as Denmark. Lundtofte WWTP would like to become energy neutral. To that end, primary clarifiers are being substituted by a filtration processes after flocculation and coagulation. The proposed master project will support and optimize the implementation of the new filters, analyze the potential to recover carbon and consequently the biomethane potential, balance the carbon recovery with effluent quality, provide tools to monitor the quality of the primary effluent – which eventually will support new control strategies in the plant – and improve the overall profit of the plant.

REFERENCES Jetten, M.S.M., Horn, S.J. and Van Loosdrecht M.C.M. (1997). Towards a more sustainable municipal wastewater treatment system. Wat. Sci. Tech., 35(9), pp. 171-180.Foley, J.M., Rozendal, R.A., Hertle, C.K., Lant P.A. and Rabaey, K. (2010). Life Cycle Assessment of High-Rate Anaerobic Treatment, Microbial Fuel Cells, and Microbial Electrolysis Cells. Wat. Sci. Tech., 44(9), pp. 3629-3637.Jimenez, J., Miller, M., Bott, C., Murthy, S., De Clippeleir, H. and Wett, B. (2015). High-rate activated sludge system for carbon management - Evaluation of crucial process mechanisms and design parameters. Water Research, 87, pp. 476-482. Väänänen J., Cimbritz, M. and la Cour Jansen, J. (2016). Microsieving in primary treatment: effect of chemical dosing. Wat. Sci. Tech., 74(2), pp. 438-447.

Master thesis Project no. 405

Bearing Fault Detection in Frequency Converter-Driven Induction Motors E. Chiotis DTU Elektro, Technical University of Denmark From industries to power plants, there is a clear effort for increasing the reliability of the productive process. Within these contents, predictive maintenance plays a key role ensuring reliability in terms of equipment. Based on previous knowledge from predetermined and recorded parameters, condition-monitoring (CM) algorithms can produce results that describe the operation and the conditions of the rotating machinery equipment. Since 40% of the global electric energy is consumed by electric motors, and the large majority of those are induction motors, detection and identification of potential failures is of great importance. Like any piece of rotating machinery used in industrial applications, the operational environment include mechanical and thermal stresses among other harmful conditions. The latter dictates the development of CM methods, which will prevent unplanned downtime and reinforce their operational ability. These CM methods are part of predictive maintenance and are used in several applications such as in wind turbines, where they prolong the lifespan of electrical motors and increase the sustainability by preventing costly downtime of large parts of a wind farm. Additionally, another benefit in such applications is that they minimize the cost of replacing expensive equipment while contributing to uninterrupted operation and power production. For reducing the energy use of an electric motor driven system, the speed of the motor is a parameter that is often controlled by a variable speed drive. The role of a variable speed drive is to control how much power flows into the motor and eventually into the application. Within the context of digital transformation, recorded information from various sensors holds a significant role. The idea behind this project is to take advantage of another feature of the variable speed drive, which is its operation as a smart sensor. Being able to have access to signals such as current and voltage it can provide valuable information. Particularly, this project aims to use the variable speed drive as a smart sensor for CM techniques, in order to investigate bearing faults in electric motors. Within the content of the project, the impact of a bearing failure on the current of the motor is investigated. This enables CM of electric motors without the use of additional external sensors. Fourier analysis and Wavelets Transformation are the base of the CM methods used to identify these faults. More specifically, bearing faults create harmonics in the current spectrum that should be not present during the normal operation. The fact that the nature of bearing faults can vary, leads into their classification in two main categories, single point defects and generalized roughness. Their main difference is the extent of their localization, which in the latter is far wider. This separation in the nature of bearing faults is taken into consideration due to the fact that, while the former category produces harmonics easily identified in the current spectrum, the latter may not have an easily detectable pattern of harmonics. During the six months of the project an experimental set-up has been used for the detection of bearing faults. In the first part of the experiment, artificially caused scratches were introduced in the inner raceway of the bearings, in order to have the first specimen for examination. The investigation of different fault levels in terms of severity was decided, in order to find indicators for the evolution of the faults. Examining the generalized roughness faults and their signature in the current spectrum is proposed for further investigation.

Master thesis Project no. 406

Circular Ocean - Recycling Fishing Nets into Concrete E. SuĂĄrez DTU Byg: Institut for Byggeri og AnlĂŚg, Technical University of Denmark

MOTIVATION Annually, it is estimated that 12,7 million tons of plastic waste enters our oceans. Nowadays, the fishing industry is on the top of marine waste product generation. Over 30,000 nets are lost by European fisheries annually due to bad weather conditions, gear conflict, ocean currents or by action of fishermen. The plastic waste going into the ocean is not only a specific problem for the marine ecosystem, but for humans too. The microplastics created because of the degradation of waste products in the ocean are ingested by animals entering later the human food chain.

Figure 1: Logo of Circular Ocean project

THEORY

Following the objective of minimizing marine waste and as part of the research for the Circular Ocean Interreg Project in the Northern Peninsula Area Region, this master thesis investigates the use of fibers from waste fishing nets thrown into the ocean as fiber reinforcement in cement mortar samples. Fiber-reinforced cement-based specimens are already widely used in the construction sector, with different kinds of fibers, from steel to natural fibers. In this project, two types of fibers were used: commercial fibrillated polypropylene (PP), already used in cement-based specimens and recycled polyethylene (PE) fibers from discarded fishing nets.

METHODS The first part of the thesis is focused on reporting the environmental impact of the discarded fishing nets, testing the degradation of the nets with a small-scale ocean water test simulation, where the microplastics generation was quickly visualized. Moreover, a characterization of the impurities as sand, seaweeds, salt and microplastics coming together with the fibers was carried out. The purpose of the analysis was to get an overview of the impurities presence in the fibers mix to have a better understanding about why they should be removed before the casting process. The second part of the thesis investigates the recycled fibers in cement mortar samples in terms of mechanical properties as compressive strength, flexural strength, flexural toughness and interface bonding between the fibers and the cement-based material matrix. Finally, concerning the plastic shrinkage prevention, digital image correlation (DIC) was used to analyse the specimensâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; microstrain and compare the results with the manual LVDT test to prove the reliability of the test. CONCLUSION Promising results regarding the mechanical properties were achieved for the recycled fibers samples, showing a similar workability as the commercial PP fibers samples fabricated on purpose for the concrete reinforcement. Furthermore, in addition to a clearly positive environmental impact, the cost analysis showed that the use of recycled fibers could lead also to an economical benefit for the construction sector.

Master thesis Project no. 407

Detecting Leakages and Anomalies in District Heating Systems Using Thermal Drone Footage F. Villebro, S. Forchhammer, and C. Mantel DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION District heating is an efficient and popular way of providing heat to urban households. Heat is generated at a centralized district heating plant after which it is transferred to the end user through underground pipelines in the form of hot water or steam. Bad insulation or leakages in the underground pipe system are hard to detect and causes economic and environmental losses. Pinpointing where these anomalies appear is a tremendous task as pipelines can cover vast areas. One solution is to equip pipelines with sensors, however depending on the type there can be substantial initial investment and installation can be cumbersome. This project aims to solve this problem in a non-intrusive way by using thermal drone footage and machine learning in order to detect these anomalies.

THEORY Bad insulation or leakages in district heating pipelines causes their surroundings to heat up and thus they are visible with a thermal camera. In combination with a aerial drone large areas of the distribution pipelines can be investigated. Adding machine learning algorithms on top of it can hopefully result in full automation with minimal human intervention.

IMPLEMENTATION In particular this project focuses on the data analysis part of the proposed solution. Data gathering have been carried out by Drone Systems which have supplied their thermal drone footage for data analysis. The supplied data consists of 640x512 resolution thermal images taken at a height of around 100 meters above ground along with GPS data of each flight.

Data Analysis Two different models have been constructed. First of all a model for anomaly detection without any prior knowledge about pipe location was implemented by investigating each image of a flight individually and extracting hot areas for which features where calculated. A principal component analysis was carried out and results fed into multiple different classifier algorithms such as AdaBoost, Random Forest, Support Vector Machines and etc. The second model includes prior knowledge of pipe location and combines images from one flight to form a orthophoto. Overlaying a pipe mask hot areas are extracted and features calculated which are fed into the same classifier algorithms.

RESULTS Results are still work in progress, however they look somewhat promising.

Master thesis Project no. 408

Electrodialytic Extraction of Phosphorus from Waste Water M. V. Henning DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Phosphorus (P) is a nutrient necessary for all plants, animals and humans. The current extraction of P is based on mining of inorganic P, whereto it has been estimated that we will inevitably run out of inorganic P in ~100 years. Simultaneously, agriculture has become a major polluter of nutrients and the reason for consequent eutrophication of the Danish fjords, lakes and sea. This is due to the use of organic P from manure or P from waste water that has precipitated with iron salts, which both are slowly mineralized and release P after the growth season. This project investigated whether the bioaccumulated P in sludge at waste water treatment plants (WWTP) could be released to the water phase and afterwards extracted with electrodialysis (ED). If possible, a soluble P product could substitute the inorganic P without the side effects from the agriculture.

METHODOLOGY The P rich sludge was treated with a volatile fatty acid (VFA) to provoke the release of P from microorganisms and afterwards concentrated by ED. ED is a method where the movement of ions across a membrane is facilitated by an electric current. The phosphate ion 3(PO4 ) will move towards the positive anode and accumulate in a clean solution. The enriched P solution can possibly be used directly on farmland or be precipitated to struvite that can be used as nutrient. ED is a sustainable method where the costs can be reduced by lower currents, but simultaneously ensures a safe and green handling of the waste water as 2+ 2+ it effectively removes heavy metals (Pb , Cd etc.) since they have the opposite charge of 3PO4 .

RESULTS A release of ~40 % P to the water phase was obtained by use of a VFA. When used in ED it was possible to remove 100 % from the waste water, and to transfer 100 % to the phosphorus enriched solution.

CONCLUSION ED was very successful which show great potential for both cleaning waste water with ED and recovering P as a nutrient resource. The limiting factor is release from the use of VFAs of 40 % which perhaps could be increased by use of a different VFA. If 40 % of the P at Danish WWTPs is recovered 2000 t/yr can be recycled. These could cover the 1400 t used by ecological farming. ED is an efficient and reliable green technology ready to be utilized to recover phosphorus for the farmers.

Master thesis Project no. 409

Energy Efficiency Improvements in 5G Mobile Networks T. Wollesen DTU Telecommunication, Technical University of Denmark Since the introduction of the first commercial mobile communication systems in the 1970’s, followed by GSM, UMTS, LTE and all versions in between, the focus have always been on coverage and capacity of the networks. The better coverage, the more customers can receive the service and the higher capacity the better the service. However, the rapid growth and demand for information and communication technology (ICT) systems have led to a massive increase in power consumption. It is expected that by 2030 the global energy consumed by LTE and 5G wireless access networks alone will exceed 2.500 TWh annually, and rising. The trend in telecommunication is heading towards heterogeneous network structures, an increased number of small, macro, and micro cells. This has led to an increased interest in energy efficiency (EE) and how this can be a part of the future mobile communication systems, especially as part of the upcoming 5G standard in 2020. The number of base stations will increase in the upcoming 5G network. The focus in previous generations of mobile networks have been on coverage and capacity of the varies systems, and not so much on the energy efficiency of the networks. The result is a near “always on” network topology that is ready to cope with peak hour traffic at all times. This project investigates and analyze how EE in future Radio Access Networks (RANs), like 5G, can be optimized without impacting the users Quality of Experience (QoE). This is done by testing how Self-Organizing Networks (SON) behaves when a “sleep-mode” is introduced, which allows base stations to partially power down when a certain lower utilization threshold is reached. The project is built on network simulations performed by use of the sophisticated MONSTeR (MObile Networks SimulaToR) through Matlab. So far the simulation results have provided great insight into the world of energy optimization in mobile RANs. The results show that EE improvements between 100 and 500% is obtainable without significant reduction of the user QoE. At the same time energy savings between 30 and 45% seems likely based on introduction of the MONSTeR eNB sleep algorithm. The results are shared with one of the largest mobile network operators in Denmark (TTNetwork) to provide insight, inspiration and guidance in their energy optimization strategy.

Master thesis Project no. 410

Development of Performance Tests of Kettles to Quantify the Effects of Water Softening M. A. Engell DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Sweden, the Netherlands and now some areas in Denmark are softening the drinking water, with a common agreement, that softening of drinking water is economically and environmentally beneficial. But the remaining question is how does one quantify such claim?

QUANTITATIVE MEASURES Several published articles [1][2][3] report that the lifetime, of household appliances, is expanded when changing the water supply from hard to softer water. Until now the reported lifetime expansions are based on estimations or qualitative information from interviews of residents receiving both soft and hard water. The innovative idea of this master thesis is the creation and performance of basic measurable tests on electrical kettles, to test calcium carbonate precipitations influences the kettles. By establishing repeatable performance tests for kettles, it enables the currently missing quantitative study of assessing hard waters effect on household appliances, related to the expected lowered lifetime. In this study three performance tests were carried out; an aesthetic test, a test of the resistance in the lid of the kettle and a noise test. The aesthetic test of the kettle is based on a classification of the kettle, based on their visual state, which are well correlated with the usage. The resistance in the lid is based on the measure of pressure applied to a scale, when closing the lid of a kettle placed on top of it. The correlation between the resistance in the lid and the usage of the kettle show a strong correlation. Finally, the noise test is based on decibel measures from the active kettle, which however shows no significant correlation.

FUTURE GOALS The purpose with the performance tests is to discover the correlation between the effects of the hard water on household appliances and the usage, with the goal to establish knowledge of the exact benefits of water softening, making it more safe and reliable for the consumer of hard water to evaluate if water softening would be economically beneficial.

LIFE CYCLE CHECK The subject of softening of the drinking water is relevant for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal, as it is contributing to sustainable consumption. The softening of drinking water will decrease the purchase and thereby consumption of new household appliances, as they are broken by the hard water. The softened water also leads to a decreased need for cleaning products which also encourage sustainable consumption.

REFERENCES [1] Godskesen, B., Hauschild, M., Rygaard, M., Zambrano, K., & Albrechtsen, H. J. (2012). Life cycle assessment of central softening of very hard drinking water. Journal of Environmental Management. [2] Rambøll. (2017). Blødt vand i en cirkulær økonomi. [3] Van der Bruggen, B., Goossens, H., Everard, P. A., Stemgée, K., & Rogge, W. (2009). Cost-benefit analysis of central softening for production of drinking water. Journal of Environmental Management.

Master thesis Project no. 411

Hygrotermic Control of the Microclimate Around Buildings C. K. Nielsen DTU Architectural Engineering, Technical University of Denmark The urban heat island (UHI) is a well-documented phenomenon, that increases the temperature within a city. In hotter climate that leads to uncomfortable outdoor spaces. Research shows that vegetation and trees can help decrease the temperature (Shashua-Bar et al. 2009). Current tools, for investigating the effect of vegetation on the microclimate in the urban space, are not well suited in an integrated design process. The objective of the thesis is to develop such a method, which evaluates the influence of vegetation on thermal comfort in the microclimate and apply it to a case study in Abu Dhabi. For that purpose, two models were developed: The Soil Model and The Atmosphere Model. The Soil Model computes the evapotranspiration from the ground. It is implemented as a wrapper around the Catchment Modelling Framework (Kraft et al. 2011). The Atmosphere Model is a simple air volume model, that turns the evapotranspiration into a change in air temperature and relative humidity. The two models are written in Python and implemented in the parametric design tool Grasshopper. It has been demonstrated how they can function in an analytic workflow with Ladybug Tools to compute outdoor thermal comfort. The thermal comfort metric Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) was used to assess the thermal comfort. A case study in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, was conducted. The case study was 20m times 22m site, with a wadi running through and five trees. The thermal comfort was evaluated with the proposed method and compared to an assessment method that neglects evapotranspiration. The results showed that an average reduction of 3.7Â°C UTCI was present, when evapotranspiration was included. During the daytime of June 1st, the reduction would reach 15Â°C UTCI. From this study it could be concluded that evapotranspiration has a substantial impact on the thermal comfort in the microclimate and that it is possible include such an analysis in an integrated design process.

Master thesis Project no. 412

Increasing Road Safety: Nudging Drivers to Comply with the Speed Limit 1

K. M. Villsborg , S. Dybdal 1

DTU Management, Technical University of Denmark 2 DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark

THE PROBLEM Each year 1.3 million people are killed on the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s roads [1]. Traffic accidents have an estimated yearly cost of 22 billion Danish kroner in Denmark alone [2]. This does not include the decreased quality of life for the victims and their relatives. Speed is at the core of the problem, since speed increases both crash risk and crash consequences [3]. Therefore solving the speeding problem will make for a safe and sustainable future.

WHY ARE PEOPLE SPEEDING Speeding is still one of the most socially accepted deviating driving behaviors. This is partly due to people not understanding the danger they put themselves and others in. In other cases, people speed without being aware of it because they are just following the stream of traffic or they are just not aware of their speed.

CURRENT INITIATIVES Current initiatives fall short since they are either geographical limited (e.g. speed bumps), not intervening at the moment of speeding (e.g. TV spots), or appeals to the rational mind even though many driving actions and behaviors are automatic (e.g. campaign messages). The reward of not speeding is decreasing the risk of being involved in an accident and eliminating the risk of being fined for speeding. This reward is both abstract and delayed, which makes it inefficient of persuading drivers.

OUR SOLUTION We have a number of concepts in the pipeline building on the Nudge principles, which means making small - but significant - changes to the environment where one needs to make a choice. Driving simulator experiments will be conducted to test the effects of the concepts, and the most promising concepts will be presented at the GrĂ¸n Dyst pitch. All of the concepts are situated in the car, which enables them to act whenever and wherever the driver speeds. This way the driver can become more aware of them speeding, and the risks they are running. All of the concepts build on existing, cheap technology that can be found in most newer cars. They are therefore easy implementable and scalable worldwide. Our vision is to make complying with the speed limit the most convenient option for drivers. This will persuade more drivers, which in the end will make it socially unacceptable to speed.

REFERENCES [1] UN launches initiative to improve road safety worldwide - United Nations Sustainable Development. (2018, April 12). Retrieved May 10, 2018, from https://www.un.org/ [2] Rigspolitiet - National Strategisk Analyse 2017 [3] Peden, M. (2004). World report on road traffic injury prevention. Geneva: World Health Organization.

Master thesis Project no. 413

JordSim: A Multidimensional Multiphysics Modelling Tool for Green Remediation Technologies R. Sprocati

1,2

DTU Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of Padova

INTRODUCTION

Contaminated land is a global issue and the number of sites worldwide which require remediation activities has been estimated in the hundreds of thousands. Nowadays the research aims at developing alternative cleanup technologies to treat contaminants “in situ” (without excavation) with sustainable techniques such as electrokinetic remediation (EK), which uses electric energy to remove both organic pollutants and heavy metals. A major obstacle in the optimization and scalability of this technology is the absence of a modelling tool able to evaluate the complex transport mechanisms and geochemical interactions with the soil in multiple dimensions. JordSim, the tool developed in this study, successfully integrates these features for real-world applications, design and optimization of EK technologies and with possible uses in several other applications for subsurface remediation techniques and risk assessment of contaminated sites. MODELLING APPROACH The proposed model is a coupling between COMSOL Multiphysics® and PhreeqcRM through a MATLAB® interface which enables to combine any groundwater transport mechanism with a wide range of chemical and geochemical reactions. Advantages with respect to existing models is the unique possibility to model EK processes in multidimensional heterogeneous scenarios with complex physical and biogeochemical processes, including aqueous speciation equilibria, a wide range of geochemical reactions including mineral precipitation and dissolution, as well as contaminant degradation kinetics.

RESULTS AND OUTLOOK

The model has been validated against analytical solutions, 1-D equivalent setup and highresolution experimental data for the reactive transport of contaminants under natural groundwater flow conditions [1] and for engineered EK applications [2]. The latter include: (i) the simulation of heavy metals and metalloids removal in low permeability matrices, (ii) the design of efficient amendment delivery for enhanced contaminant degradation, and (iii) the optimal electrodes setups to minimize installation costs. JordSim applications of primary environmental relevance are envisioned in the fields of remediation of contaminated sites and mine tailings, as well as in the field of mine activities towards sustainable and less invasive technologies.

REFERENCES [1] Rolle, M., Sprocati, R., Masi, M., Jin, B., & Muniruzzaman, M. (2018). Nernst‐Planck Based Description of Transport, Coulombic Interactions and Geochemical Reactions in Porous Media: Modeling Approach and Benchmark Experiments. Water Resources Research, 54. DOI: 10.1002/2017WR022344. [2] Sprocati, R., Masi, M., Muniruzzaman, M. & M. Rolle. A charge-based multidimensional approach to simulate electrokinetic subsurface remediation. In preparation.

Master thesis Project no. 414

Kukuii: Light Therapy Against Alzheimer’s 1

S. Guzzetti , M. S. Carstensen , and N. Hagelund 1

DTU Management Engineering, Technical University of Denmark 2 DTU Fotonik, Technical University of Denmark

PROBLEM Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease that accounts for approximately the 60% of the cases of dementia. There are 47 million people suffering form AD worldwide, 17 in EU and US alone. The number of patients is expected to double every 20 years. indeed, due to the increase in life expectancy much more people will contract the disease. This is one of the biggest burden to European governments, consisting in a remarkable proportion of the health expenditure, and to health insurances in the US, where it kills more than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined. The cost for dementia in Europe is €177.2 billion in total. While in the US Alzheimer’s disease and other dementia cost $259 billion. Furthermore, an effective cure for AD does not exists, since both drug and non-drug treatment are used to treat cognitive and behavioral symptoms and they are just meant to slow the illness progression. As the disease advances patients experience low quality of life, due to memory loss, depression, decreased independence, mood changes, altered sleep pattern and less appetite. They have difficulties in interacting with other people, worsening the interactions with relatives and caregivers. AD is also an economical and emotional burden for families.

OUR SOLUTION The idea originates from state-of-the-art medical research: MIT’s neuroscientist Li-Huei Tsai published an academic paper titled “Gamma frequency entrainment attenuates amyloid load and modifies microglia”. It creates new opportunities for treating AD through the use of flickering light at 40 Hz. The flickering is transmitted to the visual cortex through the retina and it would restore the natural gamma rhythm in the brain. This leads to an attenuation of the levels of amyloid beta in the brain and it empowers the brain’s immune cells, microglia. Our team has already built multiple prototypes. The last version has been produced in 20 samples for validation purposes. The prototypes are built with our patent pending technology, which is shared between DTU and UC Berkeley. In addition, the technology also permitted to overcome the problem of the light pulsations, which make the light unbearable to sight. Our light looks like a screen emitting 4000K white light.

KEY ACTIONS After having received 500.000 DKK from DTU’s Proof of Concept fund and the 25.000 DKK MicroGrant from the Danish Foundation for Entrepreneurship, the set up of experiments for medical validation has started. Indeed, medical trials have been planned for June 2018 at Rigshospitalet in collaboration with UC Berkeley and Københavns Universitet.

Master thesis Project no. 415

Lichen Growth on Concrete Elements for Sustainable Facade Design J. d’Ursel Université Libre de Bruxelles DTU Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

ABSTRACT In the past few decades, an increasing focus is put on bringing nature back into the city. More than half of humanity now lives in cities and we are more disconnected than ever from the natural world. One of the solutions being developed to answer this concern are green façade systems. Such installations can have a very positive impact on the thermal performances of a building and on its local environment in terms of heat island effect, water management, air quality, noise pollution, visual comfort or biodiversity. In recent years, green façades became increasingly developed, diverse, and sophisticated. However, their implementation is not yet widespread, and all the solutions are not equal. Most of the existent systems present several drawbacks in terms of installation and maintenance costs, low level of integration with the structure, extra loads or limitations in flexibility. The present project is looking into a new type of green façade based on the growth of lichens on a concrete substrate. Lichens are unique life forms characterized by a symbiotic relationship between a fungus and an algae, drawing all its nutrients from the air. The aim of this project is to create an integrated solution where the bare building material grows selfsustaining and air cleaning organisms. Consequently, bringing nature back in the city in vivid color patterns. The task at hand lies in the search of the best way to use concrete as a substrate for the growth of lichens. The strategy is to use supplementary cementitious materials in the mix design, namely limestone and calcined clay. The use of these binders presents numerous advantages. Allowing a faster carbonation, the pH of the surface is more likely to be suitable for lichen growth. Concurrently, the replacement of cement by these binders saves up 30 % of CO2 emissions compared to ordinary concrete with comparable mechanical performances. Furthermore, they are abundant worldwide, making it a low-tech solution than can be implemented anywhere. The experimentation strategy is to create a series of concrete tiles using different mix designs and surface treatments to assess their efficiency as a substrate for lichen growth. The growth is initiated with three different methods of seeding with a controlled environment in a climate room. The growth environment in the climate room is controlled by a scheduled artificial lighting and a constant high humidity for an optimised growth rate. The results of the growth tests are monitored while each concrete mix is analysed in terms of porosity and hygrometric environment of its surface. An optimal solution of green façade can then be designed combining mix design and surface treatment.

Master thesis Project no. 416

Low-Tar Biomass Gasifier: A Sustainable Production of Producer Gas for Rural Applications M. M. Rahman DTU Chemical Engineering, DTU RisĂ¸ Campus, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Biomass fuels continue to play an important role both in the domestic and industrial sector in developing countries. To support isolated rural people with power, it is necessary to replace the use of traditional liquid powered systems, and inefficient traditional used of biomass with a producer gas as a sustainable green fuel. Tar content of producer gas is the major problem if it is used directly as fuel for engine. To solve this problem low-tar biomass gasifier has been developed at BGG, Chemical Engineering, DTU.

METHODS Moving bed gasifiers with internal recycle of pyrolysis gas has been the basis of principle in this gasifier. This gasifier focuses on the concept of mixing the pyrolysis gases with the gasifying air and burning the mixture in an internally installed separate combustion chamber. The schematic diagram of this small-scale gasifier is shown in figure 1 and figure 2. The biomass (Danish pine wood chips) are filled up in to the gasifier and gasifier top is fitted tightly with the reactor. The released producer gases are burned afterwards by the torch.

Figure 1: Gasifier model, where A, Air inlet; B, Biomass inlet; C, Producer gas outlet; D, Recycle gas; E, Nozzle; F, Combustor; G, Ash grate; H, Ash bunker. Figure 2: Gasifier prototype

RESULTS & CONCLUSION Five tests were done for this experiment. The average gas production and yield of producer 3 gas was found to be 19.41 kg/h (wb) and 2.31 Nm /kg, respectively. low tar content of 27.1 3 was observed. Producer gas with this low tar content has to be used directly to the mg/Nm 3 engine for the production of heat and electricity. A lower heating value of 5.5 MJ/Nm was observed. The gasifier capacity was found to be 25.2 KW. The cold gas efficiency was found as 58% where thermal efficiency was found as 70% if producer gas has been used directly in thermal purpose. The air equivalence ratio was found as 0.272 which was close to the optimal value. So, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pointed out that this gasifier offers one of the most promising renewable energy production system. Finally, it is noted that, being comparatively easy to build with low cost materials, this gasifier could be the attractive developed technology for thermal and power applications, especially for developing countries.

Master thesis Project no. 417

Metabolic Engineering of Yeast Yarrowia Lipolytica for Production of Astaxanthin L. R. R. Tramontin, K. R. Kildegaard, I. Borodina The Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, Denmark

INTRODUCTION Astaxanthin is a high-value carotenoid compound, used as red colorant in fish and poultry feed and as antioxidant in food supplements and cosmetics. Over 90% of astaxanthin sold today is produced chemically, but the process is costly and results in some by-products, therefore synthetic astaxanthin is not approved for human consumption. Alternatively astaxanthin can be extracted from some microalgae, but the titers are low and the cultivation requires large light bioreactors. Here I engineered oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica to produce astaxanthin in a submerged fermentation. Y. lipolytica is an attractive host due to its previous applications as fodder yeast and as a source of polyunsaturated fatty acids.

RESULTS AND FUTURE PROSPECTS First, I engineered Y. lipolytica to produce ß-carotene, obtaining 331±66 mg/L titer, with cellular content at 2,36% of dry weight. Next, I implemented bacterial or algal genes encoding astaxanthin biosynthesis into the ß-carotene platform strain. The gene expression was optimized by varying the copy number of the integrated genes and the best performing strain was selected. The titer of astaxanthin in microtiter plate cultivations was 44±1 mg/L and the strain still accumulated 163±13 mg/L of ß-carotene, which shows the potential for further strain optimization, so that all ß-carotene can be converted into astaxanthin. I also fermented the strain in controlled bioreactors with different feeding regimes and obtained 25 mg/L of astaxanthin after 4 days of cultivation on complex medium with glucose. My current work focuses on optimization of fermentation conditions to increase the titer of astaxanthin. nd Moreover, I will investigate the usage of 2 generation feedstocks, such as crude glycerol and waste hydrolysate to further decrease the cost of the process.

Figure 1: Production of astaxanthin by engineered Y. lipolytica in 1L bioreactor. Picture of the bioreactor after 120h of cultivation.

Master thesis Project no. 418

Microbial Removal of Pesticides in Treatment Processes of Drinking Water L. E. Hansen 1

DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

In Denmark all of the drinking water supply is based on groundwater. In Europe, 70 % of groundwater is used for drinking water supply. The treatment of drinking water in Denmark is simple and only involves aeration and filtration (rapid sand filtration). Due to agriculture, a lot of pesticides have the potential to end up in groundwater used for drinking water supply. The current strategy is to close the wells contaminated with pesticides which is expensive and unsustainable. Today the most common applied solution to remove pesticides in drinking water is activated carbon (Christensen, et al. 2006) but this is also an expensive and unsustainable solution. Therefore, there is a need to identify more sustainable and cost-effective solutions. A more sufficient and sustainable solution for both the environment and cost-effectiveness would be if the microbes within the aeration or filtration process are able to degrade the pesticides. This thesis was based on previous investigations by Hedegaard and Albrechtsen, 2014, that observed the potential of biological degradation by methanotrophs in the sand filters at the waterworks. It was found that the bacteria, methanotrophs, in the sand filters have some cometabolic properties. The principle of co-metabolism is that the microbes can degrade the contaminant along with the growth substrate (as methane, CH4). The purpose of this thesis, was to investigate the removal-kinetics and potential of co-metabolic degradation by methanotrophs in order to comply with the guideline values of pesticides in drinking water. The thesis is based on the current problem in Denmark with contamination of the herbicide Chloridazon and mainly its metabolites (desphenyl chloridazon and methyl-desphenyl chloridazon), which raised a huge attention as a lot of active waterworks wells and water works exceeded the guideline values (0.1 µg /l as single, 0.5 µg/l in total) of pesticides in drinking water (Miljø- og Fødevareministeriet, 2017). This is of huge concern since polluted drinking water has been delivered to the consumers. One of the setup, in this thesis, was an experiment with microcosms including pure biomass (methanotrophs) from an aeration tank at Stenholt waterworks and desphenyl chloridazon (100 ug/l). Furthermore, methane and oxygen were given to the microcosms during the experiment to stimulate the co-metabolic process of the methanotrophs. In 5 days, the methanotrophs were able to remove 25 % of the total concentration of desphenyl chloridazon. This result was interesting and promising for a more sustainable method for removing pesticides from contaminated groundwater. The next experiment includes investigations on the influence of methane in the active waterworks wells (at Borre waterworks) for the removal capacity in the filtration step by the methanotrophs.

References

Christensen, A. G., Fischer, E. V. and Pedersen, T. (2006). Rensning for nitrat og pesticider I små vandforsyningsanlæg. Arbejdsrapport fra Miljøstyrelsen Nr. 7 2006. Hedegaard, M. J., Albrechtsen, H-J. (2014). Microbial pesticide removal in rapid sand filters for drinking water treatment- Potential and kinetics. Water Research Miljø- og Fødevareministeriet (2017). Bek.1147 af 24/10/2017 Om vandkvalitet og tilsyn med vandforsyningsanlæg

Master thesis Project no. 419

Monitoring Crop Water Use from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Using Hyperspectral and Thermal Data L. Shen DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVE Our food systems put much pressure on natural resources, especially on water. Currently, the agricultural sector accounts for about 85% of global blue water consumption which includes groundwater and surface. Reducing the crop water footprint is an urgent task for modern societies, especially considering that the world population will most likely continue growing during the rest of 21st century. This requires using water more efficiently by increasing the amount of carbon assimilated by crops per unit of water. The first step is to provide spatially explicit tools to better quantify crop water use at the farmscale in order to be able to adjust management practices. This can be achieved by remote sensing from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAS) carrying hyperspectral (120 bands) and thermal cameras. UAS have some advantages compared to satellites: high spatial resolution, low cost and, flexible operation times including under cloudy conditions. Nonetheless, current methods for estimating crop water use could benefit from a better parameterization of water stress factors, currently based on meteorological variables or standard vegetation indices. As a response to water stress, vegetation changes its temperature and reflectance. Therefore, UAS cameras can help quantify better stress responses. But this requires a careful identification of spectral wavelengths which are most sensitive to such changes beyond classic indices such as NDVI. Thus, the projectâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s aim is to provide indicators of crop water stress, photosynthesis and transpiration from remote sensing cameras that can be carried by UAS. We will use statistical analysis of information from optical and thermal sensors and leaf measurements of photosynthesis, transpiration & conductance for two crops that present different hydraulic traits to regulate stomatal opening.

METHODS We choose maize and soybean as they are widely cultivated across the world and they present contrasting water use strategies (isohydric and anisohydric). We grow them under typical conditions of Southern Europe and part of South America (25â&#x201E;&#x192; /60% RH). We apply 3 water level treatments: adequate (field capacity, FC), medium (70% FC) and low (40% FC), with 6 replicates per treatment. We measured (a) canopy reflectance and temperature 2m above the plants; (b) canopy evapotranspirationl; (c) leaf ecophysiology (stomatal conductance, transpiration & photosynthesis) and perform statistical analysis. RESULTS The results will (1) find which spectral wavelengths and indices are better at detecting changes in water stress due to changes in stomatal conductance, transpiration or photosynthesis; (2) Assess differences between the two crops in the regulation of stomatal conductance and changes in remote sensing variables (3) Finally, we will try to propose a multivariate statistical approach integrating different datasets for detecting water stress in the two crops.

Master thesis Project no. 420

Novel Bio-Based Branched Polyesters and Their Applications in Coatings M. B. Buendia

1,2

DTU Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark DTU Chemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

Today, fossil resources are the primary and dominating feedstock for fuel and organic chemicals. Making our society heavily dependent on fossil resources, without it, havoc; the transportation network would be crippled, electricity would be worth gold, plastics inaccessible and medicine unattainable. Luckily, fossil resources will not be depleted in the near future, they will however, eventually run out. Therefore, it is essential to develop methods capable of producing fuel and chemicals from renewable resources, namely biomass, to ease the transition from a fossil economy to a bio-economy. Haldor Topsøe has recently found an efficient chemocatalytic method for the production of methyl lactate from sugar sources, which simultaneously led to the discovery of the novel compound “methyl vinyl glucoate”(Holm et al. 2012). Methyl vinyl gluconate (MVG) has huge potential for the production of added-value bio-based compounds due to its dual labile functionality; hydroxyl and vinyl group. However, due to its novel nature it currently has limited applications. Through tranesterfication with classical polyols like trimethylolpropane (TMP) and pentaerythritol (PE) a novel type of curing agents can be synthesized. Unlike the similar classical curing agents, like pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate) and pentarythritol tetraacrylate, use up their labile functional group during the curing process MVG based curing agents would keep its hydroxyl group post curing. Besides the different intrinsic properties the hydroxyl group causes, it most importantly allows for further manipulation and thus, tuning of properties. Although the dual functionality of MVG provides its huge potential it is troublesome for the transesterification as homocondensation becomes inevitably. Currently, a solventless system have been developed for the transesterification of MVG with PE and TMP, utilizing the cheap and abundant catalysts SnCl22H2O, with a minimum of oligomerization of MVG. Additionally, a system utilizing enzymatic catalysis for the transesterification of MVG with PEGylated PE have been developed. Preliminary curing tests shows these MVG based systems have the ability of curing thermally thus preventing the use of toxic radical initators, like dimucyl peroxide. To ease the transition towards a bio-economy added-value bio-products are a necessity, requiring novel products with superior properties. MVG based curing agents will have different properties compared to the petrochemical based ones utilized today and with its property tunability it has a huge potential of finding a variety of applications.

REFERENCES

Holm, Martin S. et al. 2012. “Sn-Beta Catalysed Conversion of Hemicellulosic Sugars.” Green Chemistry 14(3):702. Retrieved (http://xlink.rsc.org/?DOI=c2gc16202d).

Master thesis Project no. 421

Optimization of Electricity Production in BIPV M. Ojiaku1, 1DTU

Department of Photonics Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Photovoltaic (PV) panels have become popular in new buildings since PV products are becoming cheaper and strict energy legislation demanding renewably energy supply for new buildings exists. Building integrated PV (BIPV) can competitively replace conventional building materials and can help to achieve energy compliance, and implementation of BIPV early in the design phase may bring cost reductions and ensure decent aesthetics.

MAIN OBJECTIVE Rambøll is building a new flagship office building in Nordhavn, and need to supplement the building with 250 MWh/pa of renewable electricity. The objective of this thesis is to estimate the annual energy production from PV panels integrated into the building façade, and try to reach the energy requirement despite the limited roof area. Shading of panels and different angular orientations may contribute to a power loss depending on system configuration, so an investigation of shading impact and different configurations will be carried out aiming at maximizing the annual energy production.

METHODOLOGY The building will be modelled in a software called PVsyst. Local weather databases will be used to estimate the solar radiation incident on the façade tiles. The electricity production will be estimated through modelling different PV configurations, and the functional limitations in the software, requires simplifications of the model. A comparison of the different system configurations and power electronics solutions will be performed to establish the differences in electricity production. Both the technological characteristics and economic benefits will be assessed.

RESULTS The results in the table below indicates that PV panels on façades have a high 83% to 88% contribution on achieving energy compliance. SolarEdge is the best solution for maximizing the energy production on buildings as this solution is less prone to shading or differences in orientation. String inverter w/ 2 MPPT

String inverter w/ TIGO Power Optimizer

Shading loss (MWh)

8.21

Mismatch loss (MWh) Inverter & Optimizer loss (MWh) Output power (MWh) Output power rel. to goal (%)

Micro Inverter

6.48

SolarEdge string inverter w/ Power Optimizer 6.47

7.33 11.02

18.91

9.60

9.47

209.29

210.40

219.93

219.81

83.55

83.79

87.59

87.54

6.66

Figure 1: Table of results and picture of building case

Master thesis Project no. 422

Optimized Water Infrastructure Investment Planning with Protection of Ecosystems L. K. ThorvaldsdĂłttir DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION

In Nepal large infrastructure projects in the power and agriculture sector are planned in the coming decades. The government of Nepal aims to increase hydropower capacity to 18,034 MW by 2029. The country possesses 50,000 MW of economically and technically feasible hydropower, while currently only 900 MW are installed. Less than half of the population has access to electricity and the major source of power is from fuelwood. Additionally, the government aims to increase irrigation systems and schemes so that 97% of irrigable land is irrigated by 2027. This will increase food security and raise crop yields in the otherwise hard conditions for agriculture. Alteration with storage type hydropower, irrigation water storage and increased water abstraction will affect water availability for ecosystems. Environmental impacts have already occurred in regions where infrastructures have been built, which is why the Water Resource Strategy of Nepal emphasizes the importance of planning infrastructure with mitigation of environmental impacts in mind. For water infrastructure planning with consideration for the environment a hydro-economic model is proposed for the case of Nepal. The model is used to develop an optimized investment schedule. Of the proposed hydro-power projects, irrigation projects, and transmission line projects a schedule is produced where the sequence of projects is optimized for different remaining flows in rivers for ecosystem.

MODELING APPROACH

A hydro-economic optimization model utilizes the relation across the water, energy and food nexus, where water availability, water requirements for crops and hydropower is linked across food and power markets. The optimization model consists of an objective function, with decision variables which are optimized. Constraints set to the objective function are e.g. capacities, demands and water availability. The objective function simplifies a multi-objective problem across sectors to a single objective problem with the common objective of minimizing costs and maximizing benefits. Consideration for the environment are done with Environmental Flow Requirements (EFRs) with the methods: (1) Modified Tennant and (2) Shifted Flow duration curves (FDC). These methods are generated for the case of Nepal from historical flow data at 7 discharge stations most downstream in each basin in the country. The EFRs are sorted to high, medium and low EFRs, where high EFRs are forcing the model to maintain higher flow for ecosystems and low EFRs are greatly altered from natural flow. Investments are set as binary decision variables, where these can either be invested or not invested in a certain year.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION Results show future investment scheduleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s and the benefit of increased hydropower capacity and irrigation systems compared to the current state in Nepal. These differ for low and high EFRs. The results encourage knowledge based decision making of stakeholders in Nepal, mitigating potential damage to ecosystems.

Master thesis Project no. 423

Optimizing Edison-Type Batteries for Large Scale Energy Storage S. M. Hansen DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION As global warming threatens our planet, it is important to minimize emissions of greenhouse gasses. Many countries are converting their fossil-based energy production to renewable alternatives such as wind and solar power â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with Denmark being a key player. Renewable energy production is however fluctuating by nature, as e.g. wind turbines only generate electricity when the wind blows. As the share of renewable energy production increases, it will become increasingly important to be able to stabilize the production by storing excess energy during peak production and delivering stored energy during peak demand.

Aim of the project This project focuses on cheap nickel-iron and especially nickel-zinc batteries that can be used to store electricity from renewable energy sources on a large scale. These battery types are of particular interest due to their price, safety and reliability compared to other battery types such as lithium-ion, sodium-sulfur and lead-acid. The aim has been to increase the lifetime of the nickel-zinc cells by applying techniques known from the electroplating industry.

THE TECHNOLOGY The Edison battery concept is based on a NiOOH positive electrode and either Fe or Zn as the negative electrode in an alkaline electrolyte. The Ni-Fe battery has a cell voltage of 1.37 V, while the Ni-Zn battery has a cell voltage of 1.73 V. The Edison battery itself dates back th to the early 20 century and takes its name from Thomas Edison, who tried to produce them for electric vehicles. Especially his Ni-Fe batteries were known for their outstanding durability, but the Ni-Zn batteries faced a number of problems such as corrosion and zinc dendrites short-circuiting the cells.

EXPERIMENTAL WORK In order to be suitable for large scale energy storage, the batteries should work for around 20 years (or 7000 daily cycles) â&#x20AC;&#x201C; similarly to wind turbines and solar cells. To achieve this it is necessary to develop a stable electrode-electrolyte interface. Electroplaters have been able to produce dendrite-free zinc coatings without hydrogen evolution and corrosion for years, but this knowledge has not been used in the battery industry. In this project, high surface area nickel electrodes were produced and paired with zinc electrodes in an electrolyte containing indium as a corrosion inhibitor and Zincaslot bright plating additives. The performance of the cells was then tested, and the electrodes were investigated using scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The plating additives were found to greatly improve the performance of the batteries, reducing both corrosion and dendrite formation, and cells with 80 % efficiencies were manufactured. While the long-term effects are yet to be fully investigated, this project substantiates that the Edison batteries could potentially be a part of a solution with increased renewable energy production without fluctuations or outages.

Master thesis Project no. 424

Potential of an Industrial Waste Water for Carbon Recovery F. Fayyaz DTU Chemical & Biochemical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Wastewater is typically treated through different mechanical, physical, chemical and biological processes before it can be emitted back into aquatic systems. During the process substances such as nutrients (ammonium, phosphorus and nitrogen), metals and organic materials are removed or reduced to very low concentrations. Today, wastewater is no longer viewed as a liability and waste, but instead as a valuable resource, both in terms of untapped energy resource and nutrient recovery. There is a strong interest in recovering materials and energy from wastewater streams. One valuable resource is the organic carbon, which if recovered from waste water during treatment, can be used as source of biofuel production.

THEORY A new wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) will be built in Assens Kommune in the coming years centralizing six small WWTPs around Assens. The WWTP in Gummerup was chosen as a pilot for testing new strategies for wastewater treatment and recovery as Gummerup WWTP receives waste from a nearby dairy industry, producing a rich wastewater stream that could be used for the carbon recovery (e.g. increase the settleability of the waste stream).The aim is to test two different kinds of polymers including commercial available synthetic polymer and an organic biopolymer derived from cheese powder residues and various other chemicals including AlCl3 and PDADMAC for efficient recovery of Carbon.

METHODS 1.Quantify the fractions of wastewater via standardized methods (soluble/particulate) (COD, BOD, TKN, NH4+, SS, VSS, VFA, VS, etc.) to assess the potential of dairy wastewater as biopolymers. 2.Study the physiochemical and biochemical properties of dairy wastewater components. 3.Based on lab experiments propose full scale reactor operation for maximum Carbon recovery. 4.Finally, the energy recovery will be quantified based on biological methane production (BMP).

RESULTS It was found that the most efficient, and cheap chemical was AlCl 3, which when added at optimum rate and amount was successful in recovering Carbon up to 84% from waste water.

Master thesis Project no. 425

Removal of Micropollutants from Municipal Wastewater in Post-Treatment MBBRs J. Deng DTU Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark To investigate the feasibility of a post-treatment biological solution in terms removal of micropollutants based on a new operational strategy of MBBR technology. The evaluation of PHA utilization of micro pollutants removal rate that will be assessed by parallel measurements both from the Pilot Lynetten (Veolia Company) and a lab-scale MBBR system (no addition nutrients and organic carbon). Determine and demonstrate critical parameters of the system such as VFA uptake under anaerobic conditions, PHA accumulation and utilization for removal of micro pollutants, hydraulic resident time. The key operation parameters of the feed strategy such as the time and the frequency of the exposure of the anaerobic MBBR to the pre-clarified wastewater and the percentage of carriers to recirculate would be also discussed in this thesis.

Master thesis Project no. 426

Resource Efficiency with Biphasic Asymmetric Hydroformylation K. S. S. Jensen DTU Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION Anything produced in chemical industry requires resources, both in terms of starting materials and the energy needed to supply the conditions necessary for the reaction to run. For the production to be more sustainable, less resources should be used. Catalysis is generally a way to do this, firstly by increasing selectivity so that less starting material is wasted, and secondly by making the reaction run at milder conditions which require less energy. Besides from getting the best possible performance, a challenge of catalysis is to be able to use less catalyst and to use for as long as possible, as the catalyst is also a resource.

THEORY The specific reaction of this project is asymmetric hydroformylation of alkenes to aldehydes. Aldehydes are useful starting points in the production of other both bulk and fine chemicals. In this reaction there is selectivity both in terms of getting the aldehyde rather than something else, and getting the right aldehyde. The proposed solution is a biphasic system, where the reaction works at room temperature. It consists two immiscible liquids, an ionic liquid phase and an organic phase and the catalyst is a Rhodium complex with a chiral phosphite ligand. This Rhodium-phosphite complex gives selectivity towards a specific aldehyde. The catalyst is dissolved in the ionic liquid and the product of the reaction is in the organic phase. This means that after reaction the two phases can be easily separated, and the product will be in one, and the catalyst in the other and can then be reused. When the catalyst is dissolved, each catalyst complex can react, as opposed to in solid form where only the ones at the surface are available because the rest are â&#x20AC;&#x153;hiddenâ&#x20AC;? behind them, so more catalyst would be necessary to get the same effect.

HOW THIS IS A SUSTAINABLE SOLUTION In summary, the main ways that this system is sustainable is: The Rhodium-phosphite complex ensures good selectivity, which leads to more of the starting material turning into the desired product. It can run at room temperature which means no energy is needed for heating. The biphasic system lets the catalyst be dissolved and immobilized at the same time so each catalyst complex is available for reaction and it can still easily be reused. Both these things lead to less catalyst being necessary.

Master thesis Project no. 427

The Effect of Copper: A Diagnostic Tool for Improved Water Treatment A. H. Thomsen DTU Environment, Technical University of Denmark

MOTIVATION Clean drinking water is a vital element for healthy and sustainable living. Drinking water production based on groundwater abstraction undergoing simple treatment through biological sand filters is one of the most cost and energy efficient methods available. Biological sand filters lower the ammonium concentrations through the microbial process of nitrification. High concentrations of ammonium present in drinking water can lead to regrowth of microbes causing corrosive conditions and formation of toxic chloramines (Zhang et al., 2009). In recent years water works have struggled to effectively lower the ammonium concentrations, and as a result 6 % of Danish water works exceed the guideline standard (DEA, 2017). This has emphasized the need to further investigate and improve the current treatment technique – nitrification in biological sand filters. The aim of this project is to develop a diagnostic tool for water works to identify and overcome the challenges of ammonium removal in biological sand filters. This could ultimately lead to a more efficient and sustainable production of drinking water without compromising the water quality.

PRINCIPLE The removal of ammonium is a biochemical reaction catalyzed by the AMO enzyme, which has been suggested to be activated by free copper ions (Ensign et al., 1993). The principle of the applied method is to determine the effect of copper on nitrification by microbes in biological sand filters. The activity of the microbial culture is analyzed through substrate utilization and product formation, assessing the change in nitrification rate when introduced to different water qualities and different copper concentrations. The applied methods include continuous flow analysis and mass spectrophotometry according to ISO standards.

RESULTS The findings of the project indicate that dosing of copper can improve ammonium removal. The experimental research shows that nitrification rates can be enhanced by 174%, if copper is dosed at a concentration of 1 μg/L. The project successfully designed a diagnostic tool through which the availability of copper in a water source can be assessed, with the aim to identify whether copper depletion limits the ammonium removal.

REFERENCES DEA - Danish Environmental Agency (2017). Quality of the Danish drinking water for the period 2014- 2016, in Danish (“Kvaliteten af det danske drikkevand for perioden 20142016”). Ensign, S. A., Hyman, M. R., & Arp, D. J. (1993). In vitro activation of ammonia monooxygenase from Nitrosomonas europaea by copper. Journal of bacteriology, 175(7), 1971-1980. Zhang, Y., Love, N., & Edwards, M. (2009). Nitrification in drinking water systems. Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 39(3), 153-208.

Master thesis Project no. 428

Valorization of Greenlandic MSWI Bottom Ash as Sand Substitute in Mortars C. C. Florian DTU Civil Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION To reduce the volume of municipal waste accumulated, Greenlandic communities decided to use incineration. This still, however, means that almost 7000 tons of ash need to be managed. Out of these 7000, around 6000 tons is bottom ash, which is deposited in landfills with little protection towards the environment. In addition to these, Greenland lacks a vast range of construction materials and is thus obligated to import most of its materials. This project focuses on using bottom ash as sand substitute in the making of mortars. By doing this, we can deal with the construction materials manufacturing processes, as well as the landfilling of the bottom ash, both of which have a major negative impact on the environment.

THEORY Studies in the past have shown that the use of bottom ash can be done in certain areas of civil engineering, such as road construction. However, due to its chemical composition, the use of ash in concrete leads to a lower compressive strength than the reference concrete tested.

METHODS The experimental work consists of, firstly, determining the properties of the raw material and the environmental impact of the ash itself. Secondly, the ash will be used as replacement for sand in mortar, in 4 different percentages: 5, 10, 20 and 100%. The resulting samples will be tested at different time intervals: 7, 14, 28 and 90 days.

RESULTS Results so far have shown that the strength of the ash containing samples is indeed lower than the reference mortar, with values of compressive strength decreasing as we increase the amount of ash used. However, when comparing the results of the 20% substitution with the 100% substitution, the values are very similar. This would mean that greater quantities of ash could be used, while still having the same strength.

Master thesis Project no. 429

Zero-Emission Power Production for Passenger Vessels in Harbor T. Gilormini DTU Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark

INTRODUCTION High-capacity passenger vessels are characterized by significant electricity demands. When sailing, electricity can be supplied either by propulsion engines or auxiliary generators using fossil fuels, or by waste heat recovery (WHR) systems such as organic Rankine cycle (ORC), using the exhaust gases. During harbor stays, the main engines are shut down and thus WHR units cannot be operated. Therefore, auxiliary generators commonly produce the required electricity, which results in additional fuel consumption and emissions of pollutants in coastal areas. A conventional solution for zero-emission power production in harbor is the use of batteries, charged by the shaft generators during sailing. However, batteries are expensive and have a limited lifetime. This master thesis investigates the possibility of installing a thermal energy storage (TES) on board passenger vessels, to make it possible to operate the WHR systems also during harbor stays. Figure 1 shows the proposed concept. During sailing, the exhaust gases supply the ORC, thus producing electricity, and charge the TES as well. In harbor, the TES releases heat towards the WHR units to produce electricity.

Figure 1: Overview of the system during sailing (left) and harbor stay (right)

The project analyzes a case study on two different ship routes from the company Fjordline, each requiring 1.0 MW of electrical power, both during sailing and harbor stays.

METHOD Based on previous studies, sensible heat storages using thermal oils are the most promising solution. The hot and cold oil can be stored in either one stratified, or two separate tanks. A simulation framework developed in Matlab allows comparing the performance and economic viability of the various options (storage configuration, thermal oil and organic fluid).

RESULTS The two-tanks option is the most promising configuration, due to its simplicity and reliability. On the studied routes, the TES-ORC system can supply the required power during the 3 whole harbor stays with 50 tons of oil (2 tanks of 60 m ). In addition, the ORC allows drastic reductions of the fossil fuel consumption during sailing. Comparing to the solution using batteries, such a system is paid back in 5 years of operation, for a shipâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lifetime of 25 years.

Editor: Bente Rasmussen Journalists: Casper Christophersen Mette Marie Christensen Design and production: Jessica Di Nota Jonas Doctor Step â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Move your brand Photos: Carsten Broder Hansen Colourbox Mikal Schlosser Stamers Kontor

The event is sponsored by:

Nordic Ecolabel - licence no. 5041-0072 - Printed Matter Âˇ www.step.dk

Sustainability and climate change are high on the global agenda. Engineers play a central part in a sustainable development of society. Engineers from DTU can and must continue to contribute to the development of technological solutions that respond to the global challenges. Therefore DTU has initiated GRĂ&#x2DC;N DYST.

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NC E E R G Technical University of Denmark, Anker Engelunds Vej 1, Tel. 45 25 25 25, E-mail: dtu@dtu.dk, www.dtu.dk